BELLE PLAINE — Benefiting on a little bit of everything on Sunday at Tiger Park, the Courtland Cubs kept their season rolling with an 8-1 win over the Isanti Redbirds in a Class C Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament second-round game.

Righty Jackson Bode got the win in six innings of shutout ball, allowing just three hits and five walks while striking out six.

While he mixed up his pitches from time to time, Bode found much of his success by challenging hitters with his fastball.

“Breaking pitches were missing high all day, fastball missing high, too, but I located it later in the game and it worked out,” Bode said. “Changeup started working later, too. Our game plan was to work outside on most of the hitters right away, but it kind of ended up everywhere [laughs].”

Bode also racked up four hits for his team at the plate, going 4 for 6 with a double and an RBI. Nolan Drill was 2 for 4 with a double and three RBIs, while Cade Bushard was 2 for 4, Maddox Mortensen was 2 for 5 with an RBI and Evan Wiltscheck was 2 for 5.

Teddy Giefer was 1 for 5, but his one hit was the biggest one of the game as it was a two-run homer over the fence in right field to give the Cubs a 6-0 lead in the sixth.

“I just missed a fastball right before that,” Giefer said of his home run. “Then he kind of hung a slider and that was it, just got a hold of it.”

Leavenworth draftee Jackson Huiras pitched two innings in relief, allowing one earned run on a hit and three walks while striking out three. Cubs head coach and player Chase Meyer also got involved by pitching the ninth, allowing just one hit and no walks while striking out three.

Sunday was a special game for Meyer as it was the first time he was able to pitch in a state tournament game with Courtland.

“That was a cool moment,” Meyer said. “I had one other opportunity where I threw at state with Stark, but this was the first time throwing on a Courtland Cubs uniform and actually pitch for the Cubs in the state tournament, so that was a really cool feeling.”

Left-hander Phil Bray got the start and took the loss on the mound for the Redbirds, pitching 5 2/3 innings. He allowed eight hits and a walk for six runs, four earned, while striking out seven.

Bode led off the game with a single before Drill singled him in for a 1-0 Cubs lead. The Cubs got another run in the top of the second after back-to-back errors put Teagan Kamm and Bushard on base, allowing Bode to add another hit to his total with an RBI single that scored Kamm.

In the fourth, a single by Bushard and a double by Bode was followed up with a line-drive, two-run double by Nolan Drill to give the Cubs a 4-0 lead. The Cubs went up 6-0 in the sixth after Nolan Drill was hit by pitch and brought home on Giefer’s two-run homer.

The Redbirds got their lone run of the game off of Huiras in the bottom of the seventh after Jake Rantz reached on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice to score Brent Tholen. The Cubs got that run back plus one in the top of the eighth on an error that scored Nolan Drill and a Mortensen RBI single that scored Jaden Drill, who reached earlier on a fielder’s choice.

Now with a second state tournament win in 2024, the Cubs will play in the third-and-final weekend of the state tournament this coming weekend when they take on the Red Wing Aces at 4 p.m. in Green Isle on Saturday. A win there would move the Cubs to Sunday, Sept. 1, where they will need two wins to advance to Monday’s state championship.

EDITOR’S NOTE: An extended story with additional comments and photos will be available in Tuesday’s edition of The Journal.