The Lake Mills baseball team won 13-9 Friday against Forest City, but it was a lot closer than it would have liked.

The Bulldogs (11-8 overall, 4-3 NIC) held off a furious comeback by the Indians in the top of the seventh inning, escaping a bases loaded jam.

With two outs in the seventh Lake Mills head coach Jason Blaser summoned Chris Throne to the mound, again, to close out the game against the No. 4 hitter for Forest City.

Throne had thrown 2 1/3 innings after starter Nolan Zobel left the game in the third inning, but with the game hanging in the balance Throne returned and retired the last batter on a strikeout to end the game.

“It was good to see the guys come back, it was a close ball game,” Blaser said.

The Bulldogs spotted Forest City a 3-0 lead before their bats came through with a seven-run second inning to take a 7-3 lead.

The first seven batters reached base in the frame and Wade Hebrink drove in a pair of runs with a single in the inning as 11 hitters went to the plate.

“We took some live batting practice to try to mix things up,” Blaser said.

It worked as Lake Mills had 13 hits in the game and added five runs in the fifth after the Indians staged another comeback in the third.

Throne was magnificent in relief, allowing just one hit in his 2 2/3 innings of work. He also struck out two to preserve the win.

Lake Mills 13, Forest City 9

Forest City – 122 010 3 – 9 7 1

Lake Mills – 070 501 x – 13 13 4

WP – Nolan Zobel 2 2/3 IP, 5 R, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 K, 2 BB