A pattern had played out the last few times the Fulton Hornets and the Hannibal Pirates got together in North Central Missouri Conference action.
It was a tendency that Fulton head coach Darren Masek wanted his team to correct.
"We talked about the fact that for the last two or three years, we haven't played very well against Hannibal," Masek said. "For whatever reason, Hannibal's had our number.
"So I think that was a little bit of our focus that we wanted to perform well."
Two monster scoring rampages ensured that the trend wouldn't continue for Friday's game at least.
The Hornets erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the second inning, then added seven in the fourth in pummeling the Pirates 15-4 in five innings at the high school athletic complex.
Fulton (5-6, 3-3 NCMC) won for the fourth time in its last six games and produced just its second victory in the last seven meetings with Hannibal.
Sophomore third baseman Scot Roberts' one-out double to center scored senior pitcher Dalton Overstreet to give Hannibal a 1-0 edge in the second. However, Roberts was tagged out at third trying to grab an extra base for the second out of the inning.
"We were calling (the throw) for third because we had no chance at the guy at the plate," Masek said. "It was a good decision on our relay guy's part, whoever was calling it out in the field making the decision."
Sophomore second baseman Luke Gray reached up in the strike zone to line a one-out double to left in kicking off Fulton's furious outburst in the bottom of the second.
Overstreet issued back-to-back walks to load the bases and sophomore left fielder Josh Quick followed with an RBI single over the shortstop to tie the game. Sophomore shortstop Devin Masek then singled home junior right fielder Trenton Clines and junior center fielder Zach Franklin to pull the Hornets ahead 3-1.
Quick scored when senior first baseman Blake Thompson was plunked by an Overstreet pitch to stretch Fulton's lead to three runs. The Hornets - sending 13 batters to the plate in the inning - tallied the final three runs on Pirate errors.
"I don't know if it was our best inning of the year, but it was pretty darn good," Darren Masek said. "We'd like to score that many every inning if we could."
The barrage ended the night for Overstreet, the NCMC's second-best pitcher according to Masek. He advised his lineup to be selective against Overstreet, who was pitching on three days' rest.
Overstreet struck out five, but Fulton tallied five earned runs on five hits and drew three walks.
"We talked about how he threw Monday, so be patient (and) make him work," Masek said. "He threw a lot of pitches; I don't know how many he threw in his time out there, but he threw a lot of pitches."
Overstreet's counterpart, Hornets sophomore starter Alec Fleetwood, collected the four-inning win in his first appearance since Fulton's 6-5 home loss to Father Tolton on March 30.
Fleetwood gave up three runs on four hits, walked five and struck out two to notch his first victory of the season.
"I don't feel like he was wild tonight, he was just a little bit out of the zone," Masek said. "He got a little tired there in the fifth inning because he hadn't pitched in a while and his pitch count was up there in the 70s."
Clines pitched the final inning for Fulton, giving up an earned run on a hit and a walk.
Devin Masek finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs, a run scored and a stolen base as the Hornets out-hit the Pirates 9-5. Quick was 2-for-2 with a run scored and Clines was 1-for-1 and scored twice.
"We got some guys that aren't hitting right now, some guys are capable of hitting that aren't hitting," Darren Masek said. "Fortunately, some guys have picked up the slack. That's why it's a team game."
Fulton - which outscored its opposition 36-12 in four games this week - picked up three NCMC wins in four tries over a five-day stretch.
"We're very happy with the 3-1 week," Masek said. "We talked early in the week about how we'd like to go 4-0. ... Overall, we played pretty well this week."
The Hornets play a non-conference matchup at Blair Oaks at 5 p.m. Monday.