MONTICELLO, Ark. — The NK 16s ran their record to a perfect 3-0 in Babe Ruth World Series play Monday as they scorched Burnsville, Minn. 11-1 in five innings.

Despite Burnsville being shutout 8-0 in its first game against Syracuse, N.Y., North coach Brent Stenman said he wasn’t about to let his team take them lightly.

“They had a four-game winning streak coming into the tournament and their pitching’s pretty good,” Stenman said before the game.

However, it didn’t take long for North’s bats to deliver a big blow as James Smith hit a three-run homer giving North all the cushion it would need at 3-0.

Jamaal Smith followed with a solo home run of his own and the NK 16’s never looked back.

North added single runs in the second and third innings before another four-run outburst in the fourth. Burnsville scored its only run in the third inning.

With the win, the only team standing between North and a perfect record in pool play is the hometown Monticello team, which lost its first game 3-2 to Fort Smith, Ark. The win also guarantees the NK 16s a spot in the championship bracket, which starts Thursday or Friday depending on their seeding.

“Obviously, we’re happy to be in it, but we want the No. 1 seed,” Stenman said.

The only other undefeated team in the NK 16’s bracket is Syracuse, N.Y., which after defeating Burnsville in its first game, blasted Nederland, Texas, 21-8 on Sunday.

Monday’s victory was a nice win after coming from behind to beat Fort Smith and the team played better than it did Sunday, Stenman said.

The team was off on Tuesday before playing Monticello at 5:30 p.m. today and Stenman said the coaching staff is discussing the best way to use the rest. Results were unavailable by press time.

Just because Monticello hasn’t fared well in the tournament so far, Stenman said he expects the hometown crowd to be out in full force for the game.

“We’re obviously outnumbered, but we’ll be a little more outnumbered when we play them,” Stenman said. “Syracuse plays before we do, so we’ll know what we have to do.”

James Smith, who along with Jamaal Smith has two home runs in the tournament, said the team didn’t know what to expect when it arrived at the tournament.

“We knew there would be some pretty good teams, but we’ve played pretty good as a team,” James Smith said. “Getting the No. 1 seed would be huge, so we can have an extra day off.”

NK 16s 5 — Fort Smith, Ark. 3

In Sunday’s game, North gave up a two-run home run before scoring its first run in the top of half of the second inning to cut the deficit in half.

A three-inning scoreless stretch was snapped in the top half of the sixth inning, when James Smith walked to lead off the inning. With one out Kramer Uvila doubled to score Smith and tie the game at 2-2. Uvila moved to third base and stole home to put North ahead 3-2.

North would add a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to extend its lead to 5-2 and thwarted a Fort Smith rally to capture a 5-3 win.

NK 16s 8, Nederlands, Texas 3

Despite being outhit 10-5 by Nederlands, Texas, the North Kitsap 16s took advantage of five errors en route to an 8-3 win in the opening game of the 16-year-old Babe Ruth World Series Aug. 11.

North jumped out to an early lead scoring two runs in the top of the first inning, before Nederland cut the deficit in half scoring a run in the bottom of the third.

After pushing another run across the plate in the top of the sixth inning, the NK 16’s exploded for five runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a commanding 8-1 lead.

However, the Texas team battled back for two runs in the bottom of half the inning as North held on for an opening game win.