When Apex lead-off hitter Corey Thompson stepped to the plate in the first inning of the Cougars’ game against rival Cary, he wanted to send a message to the Imps.

On the second pitch Cary pitcher Hunter Carr gave him, Thompson did just that, and in his own words, hit the ball “about a mile in the air” and just far enough to sail over the center field fence for a home run.

The homer sent a message not only to Cary, but to Thompson’s teammates, too. The Cougars meant business and they made short work of the Imps, pounding their way to a 15-3 victory in five innings.

“It set the tone for the rest of the guys that, hey, we’re going to be here all night and we’re going to do it at the plate,” said Apex coach Mike Valder said. “And offensively it really helped.”

Cary’s Cory Shackelford stole home on a wild pitch from Apex pitcher Houston Hawley in the top of the third inning to cut the Apex lead to 3-1, but the Cougars answered in their next at-bat. Ryne Frankoff hit a two-run double to give Apex a 5-1 lead and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Josh Wilkinson.

Unfortunately for the Imps, Thompson wasn’t done either. Still in the third, Thompson sent another Carr pitch out of the park, this time for three runs to give the Cougars a 9-1 advantage going into the fourth.

“We tried not to pitch to him,” Cary coach Chris Kiec said. “And he still hit the ball out. That second home run, he hit the ball out and it couldn’t have been more than two inches off the ground. He’s just a good hitter.”

For Thompson, the homer was his sixth in three games and gave his team momentum to blow out the rival Imps and move the Cougars to 5-0 in the Tri-Eight.

“We get hits early on in the innings and it puts pressure on the defense and on the pitcher to make good pitches,” Thompson said. “We’re hitting the baseball right now.”

Though Hawley didn’t “bring his best stuff” in the 12-run win, he pitched the entire game and tallied eight strike outs, enough to keep the Cougars’ defense confident and his team winning, Valder said.

“The kids feel confident playing behind him,” Valder said. “I think it helps us defensively because he keeps kids off balance, which usually gets us to some ground balls and keeps our defense a little sharper. You’ve got to compete when you don’t bring your best stuff. And he gives us a chance and some other guys have stepped up. Hopefully we keep that momentum up as we move forward.”

Kiec pulled Carr for Cal Foshee at the end of the third with his team down 9-1. Shackelford hit a two-run double in the fourth to make the game 9-3, but the Cougars continued their abuse of Cary pitchers in the fourth when they scored six more runs.

The Cougars simply outmatched the Imps in the contest, Kiec said.

“We have pride when we’re winning and we have pride when we’re losing, and my kids stayed up,” Kiec said. “But obviously, we threw our number one [pitcher] at them today, and it’s always demoralizing when the second pitch of the game is hit out like that. My kids stayed up and battled, but they were the much better team today.”

Kiec said the Imps can learn from the experience of facing Hawley and a talented Apex team.

“We faced good pitching, and if we’re going to get better we have to face good pitching,” Kiec said. “In our league, with all the good pitching we have, we’ve got to adjust to great pitching, and we had an opportunity today.”