LAKE MILLS, IOWA— After routing Forest City on Wednesday night, the Lake Mills baseball team (18-5 overall, 8-3 North Iowa) looked to get a win against conference rival North Iowa (11-8 overall, 7-5 North Iowa) Thursday in Lake Mills.

North Iowa pitcher Ben Matson had other plans.

Matson pitched seven strong innings and North Iowa scored four runs late to defeat Lake Mills 4-2.

“We faced a real tough pitcher tonight,” Lake Mills baseball coach Jason Blaser said. “I thought (Matson) located pitches well on the corner of the plate. He consistently got our guys behind in the count, which is tough for our guys to battle back.”

The score remained tied at zero until the fifth inning.

North Iowa pushed two across in the top of the inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Lake Mills recovered one run in the bottom on a Royce Byrnes RBI ground out to cut the lead to 2-1.

North Iowa then struck back in the top of the sixth inning, as the Bison scored a run on an RBI single and took advantage of a wild pitch by LyBarger to take a 4-1 lead.

Chris Throne tried to lead a rally in the bottom of the seventh when he sent a pitch over the center field wall to trim the lead to 4-2.

Drey LyBarger fouled out to first baseman Nic Hassebroek to end the game.

The Bulldog offense collected seven hits, but struggled most of the night against Matson.

“I think he left some quality pitches over the plate,” Blaser said. “We just didn’t swing at them.

Matson earned the win for the Bison.

LyBarger took the loss for Lake Mills.

LyBarger pitched seven innings, allowed four walks and struck out three.

“Drey has been struggling all year in terms of control,” Blaser said. “Last time out he had better control, but tonight he walked quite a few again.”

The Bulldogs look to get back into the win column Friday as they travel to Osage.

North Iowa 4, Lake Mills 2

North Iowa 000 022 0 — 4 8 0

Lake Mills 000 010 1 — 2 7 2

WP— Ben Matson 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 10 K

LP— Drey LyBarger 7 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 3 K