Neither roster was dotted with superstars.

Both squads rely on steady production throughout the lineup and solid defense.

Both know how to manufacture runs, hang around and keep games close. And they’ve both dropped some tight games to good competition this spring.

So naturally, there was more of the same when they got together.

And it was the Imps who broke through, prevailing 4-3 in yet another tightly contested game for both teams.

“You always keep up the same intensity you have every game,” Cary pitcher Hunter Carr said of the Imps’ formula. “Go 100 percent, seven innings every game.”

Both teams are trying to move in the same direction in 2008 and they’re using similar road maps. But they’re coming from different places.

The Mustangs own the last two Tri-Eight conference championships. Middle Creek had become an incubator for college and pro prospects and made a deep run in the state playoffs a year ago.

The times have been a bit leaner in Cary. The Imps finished near the bottom of the Tri-Eight in 2007 and missed the playoffs.

“To be a good team we’ve got to be able to compete with the good teams, and sooner or later we’re going to turn that corner,” Cary coach Chris Kiec said. “I feel good about it because all of our games are tight, close. The kids are together. It’s all headed in the right direction. Whether or not we get there tomorrow or the end of the year, hopefully we’ll get there.”

Over in the Middle Creek dugout, Mustangs coach Jeremy Thompson has had to adjust his team’s approach this spring with the departure of four college prospects and one pro draft pick in 2007.

“I’m hoping that the more we play, the better we’ll get,” Thompson said. “Offensively, we’re having to be a little more, you know, bunt, hit and run, steal, that kind of thing. Baseball is a game where you’re not going to be successful most of the time. Unfortunately, we weren’t successful tonight.”

The win was the first in conference play for Cary. The Imps moved to 3-5 overall, 1-2 in the Tri-Eight. Middle Creek’s record, of course, looks very similar at 3-5 overall, 1-3 in conference play.

Middle Creek senior Landon Adams said the Mustangs are working on keeping a consistent level of intensity.

“Some games, the dugout’s up and we hit the ball good,” he explained. “Other times you can tell we’re down and nothing happens. So, we’re just trying to get through everybody’s head that we need to stay up to win games.”

The similarities didn’t end Thursday night even in the postgame comments. Kiec could have been echoing Middle Creek’s Adams when he talked about consistency.

“We’ve got no superstar, per se,” Kiec said of his Imps. “We just have a lot of guys that can hit and pitch well. We have games where we hit really well but don’t play defense really well. And some where we play defense real well and don’t hit real well. And the days we do both, we win. Every day it’s something different it seems like.”