The Bloomfield Cardinals tallied three runs in the top of the seventh inning against North Knox, but dropped a heart-breaking 6-5 decision to the host Warriors, Wednesday night.

"I was happy with the way our kids never gave up in the game tonight," Cardinal head coach Jason Pegg said. "They showed a lot of heart and just fell a little short."

Trailing 6-4 with two outs in the seventh, the Cardinals made the game a lot tighter by loading the bases. On a bizarre play, Bloomfield plated their final run of the contest on a dropped third strike and an errant throw back to the plate by the Warriors catcher. Confusion quickly set in on the other two baserunners for the Cardinals and the final out was recorded at first base, with all three runners trying to retreat back to an open bag.

"That was one of the most bizarre plays to end a game that I have seen," Pegg said of the final out. "Our youth on the basepaths really hurt us."

The Cardinals jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the top of the first inning. The Warriors then answered with a pair of runs of their own in the bottom of the second to tie the contest.

The Warriors would take the lead with a single run in the third inning and then received three insurance runs in the sixth inning, which was ultimately the difference in the game.

One night after a stellar pitching performance Travis Bowlin suffered the loss on the hill for the Cardinals, giving up three runs in three innings of work.

According to Pegg the inexperience of the Cardinals pitching staff showed up in the loss, as sophomore John Satchjean and freshman Payton Karl teamed with Bowlin as the trio walked nine Warriors on the night.

"Our youth really showed tonight," Pegg said. "We had a couple younger kids pitching in there and two of the three runs scored by North Knox in the sixth inning came on walks. Its hard to beat any team when you walk nine guys."

The Cardinals also showed patience at the plate as they received seven free passes of their own at the dish to go along with four hits. But the Cardinals wasted numerous opportunities to cash in on the free passes and four errors committed by the Warriors.

"The story of the game was when they (North Knox) had runners on base, they took advantage and scored runs. We, however, left way too many runners on base including leaving the bases loaded twice."

The Cardinals will be back in action Friday night when they host Attica starting at 6 p.m.

"We will get in the cages tomorrow and try and get our bats to come around and overall just try and improve from tonight," Pegg said.

Bloomfield 200 000 3 -- 5 4 3

North Knox 021 003 x -- 6 6 4

Bowlin, Satchjen (4), Karl (5) and R. Montgomery; Harris, McKinnon (7), Moody (7) and Strimel. W -- Harris. L -- Bowlin (1-1).