APEX – Even when a Fuquay-Varina-Middle Creek softball game means very little in the Tri-Eight standings, it still means a lot to the players.

However, when these two southern Wake county rivals get together, there are usually conference title implications.

Middle Creek (11-5, 8-3 Tri-Eight) is in line behind league-leading Fuquay (12-4, 10-1) and Apex (10-1) and likely out of the conference race, but that didn’t slow them down Friday night as they downed the visiting Bengals 11-5 to avenge an earlier season loss to Fuquay.

The Middle Creek win certainly complicates things for Fuquay. All alone atop the Tri-Eight with no losses, the Bengals dropped into a tie for first with Apex.

All evening, Mustangs coach Robbie Wray kept telling his team to win each individual inning, one at-bat at a time. His players responded with a 1-0 lead after the first, and a 2-0 margin after two innings.

Then Middle Creek caught fire in the third following three Fuquay runs in the top of the inning with a six-run outburst of their own. Out to an 8-3 lead, the Mustangs never looked back.

“We focused more,” junior pitcher Darby Pearce said. “We played like we were down the whole time. We never got comfortable with the lead, because once you get comfortable you start slacking off. We kept our focus up the entire game.”

Pearce was surely focused. The right-hander scattered five Fuquay hits and did her part with the bat as well. She had two hits, including a double and three RBI.

Senior shortstop Heather Robb, who leads the Mustangs with a .421 average, 19 RBI and 19 runs scored, said this was the first time she could remember her team or any team having this much success against Fuquay ace, and Brevard College (Fla.) recruit Alex Ryan.

“Alex is very level-headed,” Robb said. “It’s hard to get to her like that. The umpire took it out of her I think. He was calling a lot of balls that were very close to being strikes, and we took advantage of it.”

Fuquay-Varina coach, Deb Clarke described her team’s five errors and Ryan’s eight walks as “statistically out there” for the Bengals. She said her players would have to shake off this loss and get ready for the critical matchup with Apex on Thursday. That game should decide the Tri-Eight championship. “We didn’t make some plays,” Clarke said. “I felt pretty good about coming back early, but then we just gave up too many runs. I kind of said to (the players), ‘We have to let this go. We live and learn.’”

“We know that if we make that many mistakes we’re going to give up that many runs, and we’re going to lose the game. Now it’s really us and Apex, and we’ve just got to be committed to next Thursday.” Middle Creek will finish the regular season with home games against Athens Drive this Friday and Panther Creek on Monday. Fuquay wraps up the regular season with the all-important trip to Apex on Thursday and hosts Cary on Monday.