In the three games in two days in Centralia, fans could see three different games.

Centralia vs Harrisburg, Marceline Photo Gallery

The hometown Panthers won all three of their games, including two victories Saturday over Harrisburg and Marceline by respective scores of 10-9 and 16-0, with the Marceline game ending in three innings. One night after walking off Eugene 2-1, Centralia walked off Harrisburg in a game that began at 10 a.m.

Head coach Mike Rodgers said Centralia (3-0) was only two days into the season but already demonstrated it could win in different ways. The walk-off victories also happened against winning programs that were coming off a 21-win season for Eugene (0-1) and an 18-win season for Harrisburg (2-2).

“The good thing is that all three were wins, but we did it in three different ways,” Rodgers said. “We had a pitcher’s duel and had to battle and scrap for a run. The second game, we kicked the ball around and had to fight our way back by getting the bats going, and then this game, our pitchers attacked hitters and we got guys on base by putting the ball in play.”

Charlie Robinson ended up scoring the winning run against Eugene on a passed ball not long after Anthony Ford tied the game with a double. Chase Kempker — who allowed one earned run on three walks and two hits in three innings pitched — also had a double that seventh inning and came back the next day in the seventh inning against Harrisburg in a similar situation. 

The bases were loaded and the game was 9-8 Harrisburg after Ford drew a walk to score a run. Kempker worked his count to 3-2 before finding a hole to score the two runs necessary for victory. 

“I knew he was going to get me a strike and I just had to connect on it,” Kempker said. 

Rodgers said Centralia was down 8-2 against Harrisburg only because of the defensive errors that happened earlier in the game. Seven unearned runs were allowed to cross while Rodgers said the Panthers were still breaking in four freshmen. 

“We turned one error into two,” Rodgers said.” Our older guys did a really good job at lifting them up and helping them when things went wrong. We got a little overaggressive. We threw the ball around trying to be greedy to get some outs at second when we should have just taken outs elsewhere.”

Despite being in that negative situation, Rodgers said Centralia “works on coming from behind” and those same freshmen came through at the plate. Cooper Gehring caught all day from behind the plate and went 3-for-3 with a run scored against Harrisburg. Hank Lee was 2-for-4 with a RBI double, and Grant Kendrick had a two-RBI double along with pitching four relief innings that contained four hits, three walks and one earned run. Rodgers said Chase Chancellor made “three or four great picks” at first base to keep the game close early. The younger players were able to set the table for the veteran players to win the game.

“The freshmen get on and then Henry Bohlmeyer comes out and gets a sac bunt to put them in the right spots and put some more pressure on them,” Rodgers said. “Then you have to go through Anthony Ford, Chase Kempker and Cole Higginson. That’s tough.”

Luke Waltemate scored the tying run against Eugene and Harrisburg from the No. 2 hole behind Bohlmeyer. Waltemate scored two runs against Harrisburg and then had a RBI against Marceline. Bohlmeyer was 2-for-3 against Marceline (0-3) with a booming RBI double.

Rodgers said his veteran players at the top of the lineup are ready for “those big moments” and joked he would rather see them happen earlier in the game. When they don’t, Kempker said the Panthers had to be in the right mindset and play cleaner during their comeback against Harrisburg.

“It’s definitely going to help for the rest of the season,” Kempker said about having two walk-off wins in the first two games of the year. “It’s teaching us to stay in the game even when stuff is not going our way.”

Rodgers said Centralia, of course, has some areas to clean up to rise to its potential and some of it is continuing to break in the younger players and all of the team’s arms. The Panthers had six kids pitch in the first three games — Ford, Waltemate, Kempker, Kendrick, Higginson and Quin Eckler — but want to at least still see Lee and Kylin Mastin. 

“They’re just trying to get their legs under them and get their arms in shape,” Rodgers said. “You need depth. We have a couple tournaments coming up, and we’re also letting them get experience. You’ve got to be safe with their arms so it’s a crawl before we walk type of thing.”

The Panthers were shut out 4-0 at district foe South Callaway (1-2) on Monday despite tallyin g nine hits. Henry Bohlmeyer went 2-for-4 with a double, and Anthony Ford allowed two earned runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out seven in six innings.

Centralia hosts Columbia Independent (1-2) at 5 p.m. Friday.