The Lake Mills baseball team experienced a roller coaster ride of sorts on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs’ fell behind early, battled all they way back only to fall in extras to Clear Lake 16-11 in a non-conference game.

“Disappointing all the way around,” Lake Mills baseball coach Jason Blaser said. “Mentally, we made too many mistakes early.”

Clear Lake struck first in the top half of the second inning, when Collin Lobdell and Ozzie Adams both drove in two runs to put the Lions out to a 4-0 lead.

Clear Lake scored again in the top half of fifth inning, as the Lions took advantage of an error to score two more runs to make the score 6-0.

Thats when Lake Mills started on the comeback trail.

Facing a 9-3 deficit going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Bulldogs scored six runs, including four runs on a Josh Zabel grand slam that tied the game at 9-9 and eventually would go to extra innings.

In the extra inning, the Lions scored early and often.

Clear Lake sent 12 batters to the plate in the eighth inning, which resulted in seven runs for the Lions and a 16-9 lead.

The Bulldogs had chances in the bottom of the eighth.

Lake Mills scored two runs on bases-loaded walks, but left the bases full when Tyler Rice grounded into a force out to end the game.

The Bulldogs struggled on the night getting hits, as Lake Mills tallied only three hits.

While the offense struggled, the Lake Mills also had an off night.

The Bulldogs committed six errors on the night, which led to several unearned runs for the Lions.

“We were fortunate to even be tied going into the eighth inning,” Blaser said. “We weren’t ready to go from the beginning.”

The Bulldogs dip back into conference play on Friday, when they play North Iowa in Lake Mills.