Lake Mills escapes with 9-6 win
Published 9:28 am Tuesday, July 1, 2008
A game the Lake Mills baseball team thought it had control of against Forest City Monday night nearly spiraled out of control when the Indians, who are winless in the North Iowa Conference, rallied for three runs in the fifth inning to take a 6-5 lead before the Bulldogs regained the lead in the sixth inning for a 9-6 win.
“It wasn’t a pretty game,” Lake Mills head coach Jason Blaser said. “We were fortunate to come away with one.”
The Bulldogs (18-13, 9-5) held a 5-2 lead after two innings, but Forest City scored a run in the fourth and three in the fifth to take a 6-5 lead. Chris Throne came on in relief with the bases loaded with no outs and was able to limit the damage to two runs to keep his club in the game.
In the sixth Wade Hebrink led off with a triple and Royce Byrnes walked to begin the rally, but Lake Mills nearly came away empty-handed after making two quick outs. Nolan Zobel was there to clear the bases with a double that scored both runs and gave the Bulldogs a 7-6 lead they would retain. Zobel finished the game 2-for-3 with a double and two RBIs. Hebrink reached base four times and scored three times.
Throne threw no-hit ball for the final two innings and picked up the win in relief.
The win wrapped up third place in the conference for Lake Mills, a team that hadn’t finished better than fourth place in seven years.
“It’s our best finish since 2001,” Blaser said. “It’s good for the seniors to go out that way.”
Lake Mills 9, Forest City 6
Lake Mills – 230 002 2 – 9 11 0
Forest City – 200130 0 – 6 6 6
WP – Chris Throne 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K