Centralia ended a long Saturday with a walk-off win but was doing plenty of running around the bases.

Centralia vs Macon Photo Gallery

Jaylynn Brown hit a three-RBI home run for the Lady Panthers to win 12-0 in five innings via run rule against Macon (17-12) in the Centralia Invitational tournament championship game. Class 3 No. 2 Centralia (19-4) won the tournament for the third straight season while outscoring Hannibal (5-21), Kirksville (14-9) and Macon 41-3 for its largest run differential in the three years. Madi Johnson walked four times against Macon, but the senior picked up her 150th career hit in the 13-2 win over Kirksville.

Head coach Liz Bostick said it is always impressive beating the pool of teams that usually compete in Centralia’s tournament and even more so over a 12-hour day. She said the Lady Panthers showed up at Bicentennial Park before 8 a.m. and ended the championship game at around 8 p.m. Still, she said every Lady Panther continued to show up in the batter’s box.

“One through 10 is hitting,” Bostick said. “As a pitcher, it is exhausting to not be able to take a breath between any of these kids. When you got kids like that who are all putting the ball in play, are aggressive at the plate and attacking good pitches, and are just really good batters, good luck to you.”

Centralia tallied 15 hits in a 16-1 four-inning win over Hannibal as nine Lady Panthers finished with at least one RBI to support four hitless innings from Brooklyn Hardin, who struck out eight. The Lady Panthers took care of Kirksville in five innings with nine hits, eight Lady Panthers driving in at least one run and Brown striking out 13 in five innings. Brown, who struck out nine and allowed two hits in five innings, had four RBIs and Cora King had three RBIs for most of the RBIs against Macon, but seven Lady Panthers had at least one hit.

The hits and RBIs came from all around for Centralia on Saturday and started with the leadoff hitter Johnson. She went 3-for-6 with four RBIs, four runs, one home run and one double in the first two games against Hannibal and Kirksville but took her bases against Macon, adding four walks to daily total of six and scoring three more runs. Bostick has been convinced for a while that the school record holder Johnson is “one of the best hitters that Centralia has had” and showed she can help in multiple ways.

“Today was a day that she was patient at the plate and was looking for her pitch,” Bostick said. “All day she has been dominant hitting good line drives. Pitch to her. Go for it. If not, she is a speedy and quick kid on the bases.”

According to Bostick, she is aware of kids from Centralia and other schools having 100 career hits but isn’t aware of the last Centralia kid to have 150 hits. She said the four-year starter has always had good pitch recognition to lay off close pitches and crush hittable ones but thought she wasn’t “pushing for hits” on Saturday.

Johnson said she thought she was close to the milestone but didn’t know for sure she would reach it on Saturday and receive a sign commemorating the accomplishment from her teammates. She said she is glad to see all her hard work pay off. To her, consistent hard work has led to consistency at the plate.

“Sometimes, making the adjustment in the at-bat itself really helps me out,” Johnson said. “It is the consistency of working hard outside of practice.”

The all-stater Johnson strings together quality at-bats while maintaining a consistent approach. She said she tends to attack after the first strike but knows others are capable of advancing her around the bases.

Centralia’s heart of the order of King, Kassena Ridgel and Brown collected four, five and seven RBIs, respectively, in the three games. However, the bottom of the order with girls like Karli Andersen, Raleigh Dutton and Blakely Van Dyke each had multiple RBI games. Johnson thinks the Lady Panthers deserved the title again.

“This team works very hard, and I think it’s very rewarding to see it all pay off,” Johnson said about winning a third straight home tournament title. “Nobody sees what goes on behind the scenes. I really do think that we are one of the hardest working teams out there. Every single one of us wants it.”

Centralia has two regular season games scheduled and will have districts begin in Macon in the middle of the month. Bostick said the team needs a balance of playing for a one-and-done scenario of districts while keeping a light and positive atmosphere in the dugout.

“Stay humble,” Bostick said. “We were dominant, but it takes one ball bouncing the wrong way in the postseason to get you out of it. We need to keep being true to ourselves.”