Broken thumb and all Josie Brackey is still very tough to hit.

A little timely hitting and a lot of Brackey were the difference Friday night for the Bulldogs as they got past Osage in a 1-0 win in Lake Mills.

Brackey fanned 15 and threw her second straight shutout to advance Lake Mills (20-10) to the regional semifinals where the Bulldogs will face MFL-Mar-Mac (27-11) Monday in Charles City.

“She wants to be out on the mound and she’ll do anything to be out there,” said Lake Mills head coach Stacie Gaskill.

Brackey, who entered the post season with an .75 ERA and 181 strikeouts in 121 2/3 innings, gave up just two hits in the game. It appeared her broken thumb hasn’t had any effect on her dominance.

“She’s tough,” Gaskill said. “If it’s bothering or it hurts a little bit I don’t think she’s going to let anyone know that it is because I think she has a high pain tolerance and she’s going to play through it regardless.”

Osage (17-12) entered the game riding the high of knocking off Central Springs 3-0 the night before, but any momentum the Green Devils might have had from the victory was killed quickly.

The Bulldogs split the regular season meetings with Osage, but had just defeated the Green Devils Monday 5-1 in Lake Mills. Still Gaskill told her team it couldn’t overlook Osage before the game.

“We beat them on Monday so I just told the girls you can’t overlook them because they just came off a high of beating Central Springs and Osage wasn’t the favorite,” she said.

Jade Durnil lifted the Lake Mills offense in the second inning with an RBI single that scored Jordynn Brackey from third to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. It was just Durnil’s seventh RBI of the season. She provided Lake Mills with an RBI base hit against St. Ansgar the night before in a 2-0 win.

The Bulldogs had other opportunities to put runs on the board with their six hits, but stranded four runners in the game including three in scoring position.

“Offensively, I’m not very disappointed just because when we did hit the ball, they were shots,” Gaskill said. “We were making good contact with the ball.”

Osage got a two-out single in the first and had its only real threat come in the sixth inning. Erica Bausedman hit a single with one out and stole second base. Brackey fell behind 3-0 to leadoff hitter Carrie Rawn, but came back to strikeout Rawn and Allie Eisenman to end the inning.

The Lake Mills defense, which had its troubles during the regular season, was flawless in the field for the second straight game. That type of defense will a key for the Bulldogs through the remainder of the postseason.

“Our motto in postseason is one game at a time, one inning at a time, one hit at a time and one pitch at a time,” Gaskill said. “We have to break it down so we’re focussing the whole entire game and not just pick and choose because you never know when they’re going to get a hit off Josie.”

Lake Mills 1, Osage 0

Osage 000 000 0 — 0 2 0

Lake Mills 010 000 x — 1 6 0

WP — Josie Brackey 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 15 K

LP — Amelia Johnson 4 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K