LAKE MILLS — The top two teams in the North Iowa Conference standings took the diamond Wednesday at Lake Mills.

Newman Catholic (15-2 overall) remained in control of the conference with a 15-3 win over the Bulldogs (12-4 overall) in five innings.

The Knights built a 7-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

“We had two errors in that first inning, and we probably should have been out of it with just two runs,” said Lake Mills coach Jason Blaser. “They (Newman Catholic) did a great job. They do all the little things correctly. Against some of the other teams we can afford to make mistakes, but against one of the top teams in the state we’re not going to be able to do that.”

In the second inning, Newman Catholic extended its lead with a two-run shot by Peter Lapointe and a grand slam by Joey Verstegen to take a 14-0 lead.

After the Knights took a 15-0 lead in the fourth, Lake Mills fought back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Matt Throne, Luke Kayser and Landon Abele each crossed the plate, and Peter Hagenson and Levi Meyer drove in one run each.

Kayser, Grant Boehmer and Matt Scholbrock split time on the mound for the Bulldogs.

Blaser said he’s happy about the 12 wins this season, but he thinks the team has more potential.

“Heading into tonight’s game record-wise, we’ve been playing well,” Blaser said. “We still need to play complete games, even in some of our wins. We’ve been making some defensive mistakes that guys who’ve been playing varsity for two or three years shouldn’t make.”

Lake Mills will get another shot at Newman Catholic at 7:30 p.m. July 3 at Mason City.

Last season, the Bulldogs were knocked out of the district tournament with a 7-1 loss at Newman Catholic after the teams split the regular season series.

Next, Lake Mills will play at Belmond-Klemme at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Statistics are in the Scoreboard: June 18 post.