Messenger photo by Britt Kudla: Julian Blanco of St. Edmond reacts to a play last week at Rogers Park.

LAKE MILLS — Down to their final three outs of the season, the St. Edmond baseball team found new life.

The Gaels erased a three-run deficit with four runs in the seventh, highlighted by an RBI-single from Griffin Laufersweiler to defeat Lake Mills, 5-4.

Blake Bartlett came on in relief, as the eighth-grader struck out seven and recorded the 21st out of the game on a grounder he fielded he tossed to senior first baseman Kade Schlegel.

Bartlett’s classmate, Julian Blanco, also delivered an RBI single as Kinnick Henning had the third hit in the inning — and the game — with the first of the night vs. the Bulldogs (15-6 overall).

“I try to be positive and not let negative thoughts cloud my head,” SEHS head coach Mike Szalat said. “(Monday) we finally were able to get a big inning going and stay alive.

“All credit to these kids for believing and battling.”

Ethan Swisher drove in the first run for St. Edmond (3-20 overall), which now heads to West Fork on Tuesday, and also scored in the seventh. Blanco drove in Henning and Bartlett brought in Jack McElroy with a walk to tie it at 4-all.

After an out, Laufersweiler had an RBI-single to put the Gaels ahead for the first time. Lake Mills ace Kane Koch returned to the mound, striking out his ninth and 10th batters of the night.

But the damage had been done.

Bartlett worked around an error that allowed a runner to reach in the bottom of the seventh, completing the comeback and extending the career of the retiring Szalat by another night.

“We were able to kind of push his pitch count up early and they had to take him out,” Szalat said. “I thought that was big. Even when we weren’t getting hits, we were making (Koch) work.

“Blake came on and was incredible. He knows what it takes in tight situations and he delivered.”

Henning, Blanco, Laufersweiler and Swisher each had a hit, with Henning, McElroy, Galles, Garrett Royster and Swisher all scoring runs. St. Edmond took advantage of 11 walks and a hit batter.

Grant Galles got the start and limited the damage by the Bulldogs at the plate. Bartlett, who allowed just one hit and one walk, came on and recorded 1-2-3 innings in the fourth and fifth, retiring seven in a row — with four via strikeout.

The defense turned an inning-ending double-play in the second and another in the third. The Gaels left the bases loaded three times.

“We’ve been really hard on our defense all year but I thought they did a great job all night,” Szalat said.

West Fork (11-10) advanced with an 8-3 victory over West Hancock in a game played before the Gaels took on Lake Mills.

The winner between St. Edmond and West Fork takes on either Wapsie Valley (18-6) or AGWSR (6-19) on Saturday for the district title.

The top side of the substate will see Saint Ansgar (18-7) take on West Bend-Mallard and Bishop Garrigan (17-7) square off with GTRA (6-13).