The Lake Mills softball team had an open date Thursday and decided to schedule a game against No. 1 Class 1A ranked Wooden-Crystal Lake-Tritonka.

They should have kept it an open date.

The Bulldogs (12-3 overall, 5-1 NIC) saw their six-game winning streak snapped with a 2-1 loss on the road.

Hits were hard to come by for either team as the two teams combined for nine hits, largely due to the pitchers’ duel going on between Lake Mills starter Josie Brackey and Stacey Schutjer.

Schutjer bested Brackey, going seven innings and giving up just one run on five hits and striking out six while walking one.

Brackey was equally impressive as she went six innings, allowed two runs on four hits and struck out 10 in the loss.

Three errors proved costly for the Bulldogs.

“We made errors that we have never made this year, errors that I would not have even thought of coming out of the girls,” Lake Mills head coach Stacie Gaskill said. “This is a type of game the girls needed.”

Baserunning was the name of the game for Lake Mills Wednesday night against Garner Hayfield as it took every extra base it could grab for a 3-1 victory.

In the first inning the Bulldogs saw Sammy Nelson reach on a leadoff single. Sabrina Roll sacrificed Nelson to second, but no Cardinals were covering third base and Nelson swiped an extra bag that allowed her to score on a passed ball during the next at-bat to give Lake Mills a quick 1-0 lead.

We just try to get runners on and move them around,” Gaskill said. “Once we get one on we have a good chance of taking advantage of mistakes.”

In the second inning Cassie Christianson singled and advanced to second on a throwing error, then made her way to third on a wild pitch and eventually scored on a groundout by Jenna Eidness.

Lake Mills added one more hustle run in the third when Nelson reached on a bunt single, stole second and third and came home on a Whitney Thompson groundout.

Garner-Hayfield could only counter with one run in the third inning as Brackey kept the Cardinals off the board with another dominating performance.

The eighth-grader worked five innings and allowed one hit while striking out nine and walking two. Jessica Lee pitched two hitless innings of relief and struck out two as the Bulldogs hung on for the win and extended their winning streak to six games.

WCLT 2, Lake Mills 1

Lake Mills – 001 000 0 – 1 5 3

WCLT – 000 020 0 – 2 4 0

WP – Stacey Schutjer 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

LP – Josie Brackey 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 10 K

Lake Mills 3, Garner Hayfield 1

Lake Mills – 111 000 0 – 3 6 2

Garner Hayfield – 001 000 0 – 1 1 0

WP – Josie Brackey 5 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 9 K, 2 BB

Jessica Lee 2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 K, 1 BB