North Callaway senior starter Nate VanBoening scattered two hits over three scoreless inning as the Thunderbirds trampled Clopton in a 17-2 Eastern Missouri Conference rout Thursday night.
North Callaway (10-6, 6-1 EMO) put up a run in the top of the first, erupted for five apiece in the second and third, piled on four more in the fourth and plated two in the fifth as the game was called on the mercy rule. Clopton (5-6, 3-3) scored single runs in the fourth and fifth.
VanBoening struck out two and walked none to improve his season record to 3-1. He helped himself by going 2-for-2 with a double, a run batted in and four runs scored to help power the Thunderbirds' 14-hit attack.
Junior third baseman Trevor Crisp also went 4-for-4 with an RBI and scored four times for North Callaway, while junior left fielder Cole Branson finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored.
"We came out and played good baseball from the beginning," Thunderbirds head coach Kevin O'Neal said. "The kids that got in at the end of the game did a good job of continuing to compete."
North Callaway (6-8) lost the junior varsity game 7-4.
The Thunderbirds host Sturgeon - ranked No. 9 in Class 1 - at 5:30 p.m. today.