Staff photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Levi Franta (15) slides safely into second after a throw to second base is off the mark, forcing Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Kaleb Wait to dive for the ball during Game 1 of the Tomahawk Conference baseball doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon at Mueller Park in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral scored five runs in the top of the first inning, added two runs in the second and then six more in the third as the Greyhounds downed Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 13-3 Wednesday night at Mueller Park in the second game of a Tomahawk Conference doubleheader.

The game was stopped after five innings because of the 10-run lead rule.

The win earned Cathedral a split as the Knights scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning of Game 1 to come away with a 7-5 win.

Both teams were playing their first games of the season and both teams had first-game jitters.

“The first game we made some mistakes, and when you give a good team some extra outs, they will capitalize on them and they did that,” Cathedral head coach Alan Woitas said.

Those mistakes came in the form of three errors in the top of that seventh inning that allowed the Knights to push across three runs and erase a 5-4 Greyhounds lead.

A two-run single from Talan Helget and an RBI on an Owen Weiss groundout followed two Greyhounds errors.

Weiss got the mound win, with Brandon Schmitz driving in three runs.

Jake Finstad took the loss for the Greyhounds.

Levi Franta had three hits and three RBIs, including a solo home run in the fifth inning.

“Game 2 we just gave them too many free bases with some walks and hit batters,” Knights head coach Bruce Woitas said. “We had four errors and they had timely hitting and the next thing you know you are in a hole.”

The 5-0 hole was one that the Knights could not dig out of despite a three-run bottom of the first.

Two-run singles from Thomas Finstad and Matt Seidl in the first gave Cathedral a 5-0 lead off of Knights starter and losing pitcher Mark Anderson.

The Knights responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning on a Helget single, a Weiss sacrifice fly and a Kaleb Wait base hit.

But those were the only runs that Cathedral starter Levi Franta allowed in his five innings. He allowed five hits and fanned four.

Cathedral added two more runs in the second inning before plating six runs in the third inning on just two hits.

But four walks, a hit batsman and two errors gave the Greyhounds a 13-3 lead.

Kyle Seidl, Franta and Thomas Finstad each had two hits, with Matt Seidl driving in three runs.

Both coaches said that opening up with doubleheaders and backed-up games is something all teams are facing.

“All teams are in the same boat,” Alan Woitas said. “Games are stacked up, so you need to be prepared. I felt that our guys were resilient all day — we battled back in that first game, but we had errors. But I was proud of how we bounced back in Game 2.”

Bruce Woitas echoed Alan Woitas’ comments about games being bunched up and a lack of practice time because of that.

“We only had one practice outside, so it is tough,” Bruce Woitas said. “And we play [Thursday] again, but that is the way it is going to be this spring.”

St. Mary’s hosts Springfield Thursday, while the Greyhounds host BOLD Friday at 5 p.m. at Mueller Park.