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SPRINGFIELD — Catcher Austin Bailey warmed up starting pitcher Mitch Monke before the game and then told him, "I want to beat them so bad."

In the middle of the fifth, third baseman Justin Williams gathered the Panthers together in a huddle and shouted at all of them, "How many times has Centerville embarrassed us? How many times?"

Williams didn't need an answer. He and his Springfield North High School teammates knew one win over the Elks could raise the expectations of their entire season.

Now the Panthers know how much one loss, with so much at stake, can hurt. Centerville rallied from a 3-0 deficit with seven runs in the sixth to beat North 8-4 on Wednesday, April 30, at North.

"This is a tough one," North assistant coach Doug Stoll said as he left the field.

Monke struck out the side in the third and fourth innings and had nine strikeouts in the first five innings. But the Elks started the sixth with four straight hits and sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.

Centerville had one hit in the first five innings and seven in the sixth.

"They just strung together a bunch of hits," Monke said. "They just put it to me that one inning."

Monke attributed his early success to luck.

"I didn't have anything tonight really," he said. "My arm was bothering me. I didn't have my good stuff. I wasn't throwing hard. It just wasn't a good day all around for me."

North head coach Mark Stoll blamed himself for what happened in the sixth, saying he should have had his outfielders playing deeper. A lead-off triple by Matt Steinke over North center fielder Jordan Moore's head-started the rally.

"I take full responsibility for it," Stoll said. "In late innings, I need to move them back some. We can't give a good team like that an opportunity."

Centerville also beat North 3-0 on April 18. The Elks stand alone in first in the Greater Western Ohio Conference Central Division with a 5-0 mark. North (15-6 overall) had won six straight games, but it's now 3-2 in the GWOC.

"We needed it," Monke said. "We didn't want it; we needed it."

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