RUMFORD — It took Izaak Mills longer than usual to get loose on a raw Wednesday afternoon, and Lisbon seemed more than happy to oblige the Mountain Valley senior starter.

Mills was plenty warm by the end of his 145-pitch outing. The Greyhounds were plenty hot at themselves over how often they let him off the hook.

Mills struck out 12, walked eight (one intentionally) and stranded a dozen Greyhounds in a four-hit complete game that was just good enough to frustrate Lisbon for a 4-2 win at Hosmer Field.

“I’ve been training my arm all winter to get to this point and be able to do that all season. That’s what my team needs me to do and I’m happy to do it,” Mills said.

No. 9 hitter Sean Murphy sparked the Falcons (4-1) at the plate by going 3-for-3 with a run scored and two batted in.

“We got some clutch hitting,” Mountain Valley coach Steve LaPointe said. “Sean Murphy was huge. He went right with the pitch every time.”

Murphy’s first hit tied the game at 2-2 in the second, scoring Ryan Nicols. He led off the fifth with a single, moved to second on a balk and scored what proved to be the winning run on an infield single and throwing error by the Lisbon shortstop.

Murphy, a right-handed hitter, showed good discipline by going to the opposite field on all three hits against Lisbon’s Mason Smith ( 7 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 5 K’s, 6 BB), including a two-out single the sixth to score Josh Rainey (two runs) with an insurance run.

“(Smith) was a lefty and he had quite a bit of tail on his pitch, so everything was breaking to the outside,” Murphy said. “Basically every pitch I got was to the outside, so I just wanted to hit it where it was pitched and drive it to the opposite field.”

Timely hitting was lacking for Lisbon from the start. Smith led off the game with a double and immediately moved to third on a wild pitch. Mills then proceeded to strike out the side.

Lisbon loaded the bases to start the second. Mills issued his third walk of the inning to Smith to plate Aaron Boyington with the game’s first run, but averted further damage with a fly out to right.

Lisbon (1-4) loaded them up again with one out in the third and tied the game on Kyle Priddle’s single. But Mills struck out pinch hitters Joe Philbrick and Ryan Brewer to leave them loaded again.

“You can’t leave the bases loaded in three innings and have a man on third with nobody out and not score runs. You can’t miss those opportunities,” Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said. “That was the game. We had them on the ropes in the first four innings.”

The back-to-back K’s kicked off a string of eight straight retired by Mills. The Greyhounds worked the count full 13 times against him through five innings, and they loaded the bases again on three walks (one intentional) with two outs in the sixth, only to let Mills escape again with a force out at second.

“They were very patient at the plate. They didn’t swing at many outside of the zone,” Mills said. “The first couple of innings were rough. I threw, like, 60 pitches, through two innings, walked a couple of kids on some close calls. I just dug deep and pitched through it. My defense played great.”

The game ended in fittingly frustrating fashion for the Greyhounds, who got the tying runs on board again in the seventh on a walk and an error with two out. Mills’ 12th K ended the game.

“Mills gutted it out,” LaPointe said. “He’s got the heart of a lion. He’s a big, strong kid, and he wanted the baseball.”

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