Photo by Jake McNeill: Cottonwood pitcher Seth Boerboom throws a pitch in the first inning of the Cardinals' 8-2 win over Appleton at Lakeview High School on Friday night.

COTTONWOOD – A stellar showing from Seth Boerboom on the mound paced the way for the Cottonwood Cardinals’ 8-2 win over Appleton on Friday night.

Boerboom held the A’s scoreless through his first five innings on the mound. He went the full nine innings while allowing two runs and striking out 12 batters.

“He did a really good job of throwing strikes tonight. That’s a big thing for us, he didn’t hit anybody and he wasn’t walking people. For us, that’s all you need to do,” Cottonwood manager Jason Fischer.

Nearly three-quarters of Boerboom’s pitches were strikes

The Cardinals first got on the board in the bottom of the second inning, starting with a Jacob Rausch walk. He didn’t stay on first base for long, as Jordan Fischer hit a triple in the next at-bat to score Rausch. From there, Justin Timm hit a ground ball to score Fischer and give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Rausch also came up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning with the bases loaded and hit a two-run single to score Noah Jensen and Cody St. Aubin and put Cottonwood up 6-0.

Cottonwood had some defensive miscues early in the game, finishing with four errors, but they cleaned things up as the game went on and retained their lead throughout.

“Just not getting down on yourself and we started scoring some runs,” Fischer said when asked how the team cleaned up its defense. “That always helps if you get ahead in the game. You’re always playing better defensively when you’re ahead.”

Appleton got on the board with two outs in the top of the sixth inning. With runners on first and second, a double to deep left-center field scored one runner and advanced another to third. The next batter went down 0-2 in the count before sending a ground ball to third base. Yet, a fielding error allowed another runner to score and the batter to reach first safely.

Aaron Leinemann started a Cottonwood rally in the third inning by drawing a walk. Jensen singled and Boerboom walked to load the bases. From there, Lienemann scored on a passed ball and Seth Boerboom scored when Brad Boerboom was hit by a pitch.

The Cardinals’ success on the offensive end stemmed from their ability to avoid swinging at pitches out of the strike zone, putting hittable pitches in play and forcing the A’s to make a play defensively.

After a pair of errors and a walk loaded the bases in the top of the ninth inning, Aaron Lienemann scored on a wild pitch. Shortly after, Jensen scored on a bases-loaded walk.

The Cardinals will next play the Hancock Orphans in Chokio on Sunday at 2 p.m.