Neither team considered this one meaningless.

It's Karns City vs. Moniteau, after all.

With the District 9 Class AA baseball seedings and matchups already set, there was little at stake Friday when the Gremlins met the Warriors on senior day at Pullman Park.

But Karns City and Moniteau didn't get that memo.

Eric McCue had three hits, Brad Francis drove home two runs in a big fifth inning, Brad Fuhrer continued his offensive onslaught and the Gremlins downed the Warriors 8-3.

"When these two teams play each other in any sport, it doesn't matter what's on the line," said Karns City coach Travis Twentier. "They are going to go after each other the whole game."

The two teams will square off again Wednesday in the first round of the district playoffs with much more on the line than on Friday.

Yet both teams played as if it was a playoff tilt, even though Moniteau coach Ross Martin was displeased with his team's effort.

"We wanted to win. We played to win," he said. "We got beat in all facets of the game, as far as I'm concerned. We had no energy whatsoever. I don't think our effort was very good today. Disappointing. Very disappointing."

Still, Moniteau led 3-2 after four innings before Karns City seized the lead with four runs in the fifth.

After Francis' two-run double gave the Gremlins a 4-3 lead, Fuhrer tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Zach Kepple.

Fuhrer came into the game batting .510 and raised that average with a 2-for-3 day.

Karns City tacked on two more runs in the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.

The runs were plenty of support for Patrick Foster, who kept the Moniteau hitters off-balance and frustrated, scattering five hits over seven innings.

"He throws a lot of strikes," Twentier said of his senior pitcher, who took advantage of the spacious confines at Pullman Park by attacking the strike zone. "He got the start on senior night and did a tremendous job."

Jeremy Ritts started for Moniteau and pitched well until he ran into the fifth-inning snag.

Tony Campbell tripled and scored a run, Heath Lominski had a single, double and an RBI. Braydon McCorry then brought home a run with a triple for the Warriors, who were scheduled to play North Clarion at Pullman Park Friday night.

"We're going to light a fire under them, you can be sure about that," Martin said. "Whether or not they want to find the fire is another thing, but we'll light it. We'll get up for the game Wednesday against (Karns City), that's for sure."

Karns City 100 042 0 — 8 10 0Moniteau 100 200 0 — 3 5 2W: Patrick Foster 7 IP (5 K, 2 BB).

L: Jeremy Ritts 5 IP (2 K, 3 BB).

Karns City (12-7, 10-6): Eric McCue 2-1B 3B, Brian Best 2B 1B RBI, Brad Francis 2B 2-RBI, Brad Fuhrer 1B 3B 2-RBI, Zach Kepple 1B RBI

Moniteau: Tony Campbell 3B, Heath Lominski 1B 2B RBI, Braydon McCorry 3B RBI, Aaron Shreve 2B

Wednesday: Moniteau at Karns City, first round, District 9 Class AA playoffs