The Cedartown Bulldogs (0-1) opened their season with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Region 7-AAAA member Gordon Central last Wednesday. Cedartown, which enjoyed a 2-1 lead as late as the fifth inning, was not able to overcome a last ditch effort by the Warriors (1-0).

The game started out positive for Cedartown as they retired the Warriors in order in the first inning, including using a perfectly thrown Trey Kelley throw to second base to catch an attemped base stealer.

In the bottom half of the first the Bulldogs sent Drew Owens to the plate to get things started. Owens did his job as a leadoff man and forced the Warriors pitcher into throwing eight pitches to him before grounding out to shortstop.

With two outs in the inning the Bulldogs began to make some noise. Kelley was hit by the ball on a 2-2 pitch and after Matt Snow replaced Kelley as a courtesy runner, Eric McGee belted a single up the middle to place runners on first and third.

Charlie Puckett then stepped to the plate and smashed the ball to straight away centerfield. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs the ball went right into the speedy Dorian Porch’s hands and the early rally came to a halt.

With the score tied at zero in the second inning the Warriors Ell Cobberson would step to the plate and smash a 3-0 pitch over the outfield wall to give Gordon Central an early 1-0 lead.

However pitcher Brett Lane would shake off the homer and retire the next two batters with just six pitches.

Neither team would do anymore damage until the fourth inning when the Bulldogs erupted for two runs.

The inning started when McGee was hit in the back by the ball. With McGee on first base, Puckett would rope a single up the middle to place runners on first and second base.

Dustin D. Little would then lay down a sacrifice bunt to advance McGee and Puckett up one base each.

After Andrew Hutchins popped out to shortstop, Blake Landrum would step to the plate.

On a 1-0 pitch Landrum would connect on a pitch and drive it into centerfield. Despite being perhaps the fastest player on the field the Warriors Porch could not make it to the ball in time and his diving effort came up short as the ball hit the ground and bounced passed him.

McGee and Puckett scored easily and Landrum raced into third base with a triple. However, the Bulldogs rally ended there as the Warriors forced Clay Mobbs into grounding out to shortstop.

The Warriors added a run in the fifth inning to tie the game at two and set the stage for their seventh inning rally.

With the score knotted at two and no outs in the top of the seventh inning the Warrior’s Ferrell would lace a solo homer over the right centerfield fence to give Gordon Central a 3-2 advantage.

Owens would shake off the homer and strike out the next three batters he faced, including leadoff hitter Richard Nix who had reached base twice previously.

Unfortunately for Cedartown they were unable to get any kind of rally going in the seventh inning and fell 3-2.

Leading the ’Dogs offensively were McGee and Puckett. McGee finished the day going 1-for-2 with a run scored while

Puckett went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

The Warriors were led by Ferrell who went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

Cedartown returns to action on Wednesday as they travel to Armuchee to face the Indians in a 5 p.m. contest.

The Bulldogs, who only have six seniors on this year’s team, will return home on Friday when the Model Blue Devils come to town for a 4:30 encounter.