The Middle Creek softball team has its eye on snapping Fuquay-Varina’s streak of 11 straight conference championships. On Friday, the Mustangs began that pursuit on a high note, roughing up Green Hope 16-1 in their Tri-Eight opener.

“It’s a conference game, and that’s important,” said Middle Creek coach Robbie Wray. “I told the girls it was important to start out 1-0 rather than 0-1. Then you’re in the hole the rest of the season. We stressed the importance of that and the importance of focusing.”

The Mustangs knocked out 17 hits, including six for extra bases. Nine players had at least one hit and 10 different players drove in at least one run.

“It seems if one person gets started off, we get going and then you just can’t stop us,” said third baseman Mattie Arthur, who led the onslaught by going 4-for-4 at the plate, with two triples, two RBIs and four runs scored.

Starting pitcher Darby Pearce allowed two hits over three innings and struck out five. Beth Anne Kleekamp tossed the final two innings, allowing one hit and striking out three.

Green Hope took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, which Sarah Forgacs led off with a walk. She stole second and third, then scored on a passed ball with two outs.

“It started out all right,” said Green Hope coach Michelle Then.

Middle Creek came right back with two runs in the top of the second and never looked back. Arthur led off the inning with a triple and scored when Ashley Watkins (2-3, two RBIs, three runs) knocked her in. Whitney Stilwell scored the go-ahead run on Krystal Coleman’s sacrifice fly.

The Mustangs scored four more in the third to lead 6-1.

Green Hope loaded the bases in the bottom of the third after Forgacs’ infield single, Lauren Waters’ walk and Grace Jungelas was hit by a pitch.

But Pearce got out of the jam with a pair of strikeouts before inducing a groundout to end the threat.

“I just stepped back and slowed the game down a little bit and focused on every pitch,” Pearce said.

The Mustangs hung seven runs on the board in their ensuing at-bat. They sent 11 batters to the plate. Eight of them reached base and only one was stranded on the basepaths by inning’s end.

After Kleekamp’s perfect fourth inning, Middle Creek tacked on three more runs in the fifth, thanks to RBIs from Kleekamp, Arthur and Watkins, to lead 16-1.

Green Hope nearly got one run back in the fifth when Jungelas belted a two-out pitch to the right-center gap. But she was gunned down at the plate trying to stretch her triple into a home run, and the game was ended on account of the mercy rule.

With eight players back from last season, when Middle Creek went 21-5 and reached the third round of the NCHSAA playoffs, the Mustangs have their eyes on playing deep into the spring.

“The girls have a lot of high expectations and a lot of people have high expectations for us,” Wray said. “We’re going to try to live up to them as best we can.”

They enter this week 4-1 overall. They have outscored their opponents 41-4 and won their four games all by at least six runs. Their lone loss was a 1-0 result at Winterville South Central, one of the state’s top 3-A teams.

While they have their eye on toppling Fuquay in the Tri-Eight, they have four games, two in-conference, two non-conference, before their first showdown on March 25. Middle Creek knows it cannot overlook its next two Tri-Eight foes — Apex and Cary — before making the trip to Fuquay.

“We’ve got two more between now and then, and we’ve got to take care of business,” Wray said.