Courtesy of Myron Fluegge

COURTLAND — With two more wins over the past weekend, the Courtland Cubs improved to 8-0 in the Tomahawk East League.

As the Cubs near the halfway point of the regular season, the now have a three-win lead over the second-place teams, who have at least two losses.

On Sunday, Courtland hosted the Essig Bluejays and won 11-2. After scoring runs in the second and third innings, the Cubs put up six runs in the fourth to take command of the game. Key hits in that inning were doubles by Jaden Drill and Carter Lang, and a two-RBI single by Teagan Kamm. Lang doubled again in the fifth and scored to make it 9-0.

Essig got on the scoreboard in the seventh inning, scoring two runs on their only two hits of the game. With two outs. Josh Vander Plas singled, Carson Helget was hit by a pitch and Zach Riederer delivered a two-RBI double down the left field line to score both runners.

Courtland added two more runs in the eighth inning to make the final score 11-2. Nik Johnson, one of 15 Cubs players seeing action in the game, had a sacrifice fly to plate the last run. Johnson also had a singel in the seventh inning. Cade Bushard had one hit and scored three runs. Courtland had nine hits in the game, plus extra runners reaching base on defensive errors.

Nolan Drill picked up the win for Courtland, going five innings. Jaden Drill pitched two innings and Carter Lang pitched the last two innings.

Eric Scheibel pitched four innings and took the loss for the Bluejays. Riederer came in to pitch the final four innings.

On Friday evening, Courtland played the Searles Grizzlies and won 12-2 in a seven-inning contest in Courtland.

Teddy Giefer pitched the first four innings for the Cubs, giving up two runs in the second inning. In that inning, Tony Geiger singled, and after two walks to load the bases, Isaiah Rieser hit a two-RBI double to score both runs to make it 2-2. The other two hits for Searles were by Mike Schlottman and Zach Jacobs.

Chase Meyer picked up the win in relief for Courtland as his team scored 10 runs in the final three innings. Meanwhile for Searles, Josh Johnson pitched four innings, Jacobs two and Owen Neubert 2/3 of an inning.

The Cubs had 14 hits in the game. Leading the hitting attack was Mason Cox with three hits, including two doubles and four RBI’s. Meyer, Jackson Bode, and Nolan Drill each had two hits, including a double by each of them. Jaden Drill also had a double.

Courtland has three home games this upcoming weekend. On Friday, the Cubs host Gibbon at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, the Cubs have a split doubleheader, playing Lamberton at 1 p.m. and Fairfax at 5 p.m. In the first game of the season, the Cubs defeated Lamberton 14-6. Lamberton is 3.5 games out of first place.