The Lake Mills baseball team made Friday’s upcoming game with Belmond-Klemme a little more critical after Thursday’s 4-2 loss to Clear Lake.

The Bulldogs dropped their second straight game as small mistakes added up to a loss.

The Lions took a 3-0 lead after the third inning, but Lake Mills chipped away at the lead with single runs in the fourth and fifth inning. That’s as close as they would get as Clear Lake added an insurance run in the sixth inning on a squeeze play.

The Bulldogs had one final chance to climb back into the game in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with one out, but couldn’t come up with a base hit.

Lake Mills’ hitters struggled against Lions’ left-hander Aaron Howlett, whose breaking ball caught the Bulldogs off-guard at the plate. Howlett struck out 13 hitters and allowed two runs on seven hits to pick up the win.

Bryan Hengesteg hit an RBI single in the fourth inning and Alex Grunhovd hit an RBI double that scored Scott Abbey in the fifth. Grunhovd finished 2-for-3 and Levi Dahle also went 2-for-3.

Lake Mills will face Belmond-Klemme Friday in Belmond. The Broncos sit one game behind the Bulldogs in the North Iowa Conference.

Clear Lake 4, Lake Mills 2

Lake Mills 000 110 0 — 2 7 1

Clear Lake 003 001 x — 4 7 2

WP — Aaron Howlett 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 13 K

LP — Drey LyBarger 7 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K