SPRING GARDEN – The Spring Garden baseball team is certainly giving fans their money’s worth during their Class 2A playoff run so far.

For the third straight week, the fourth-ranked Panthers lost their first game of their playoff doubleheader, but won the second to force a decisive winner-take-all third game. On Thursday at home, they lost the first game to No. 6 Mars Hill Bible 5-2, but their bats finally woke up in the second game in a 12-1 five-inning win.

Friday’s third game is set for 1 p.m.

“We’re used to it now. I guess that’s what we do,” Spring Garden coach Tony Benefield said. “Hopefully it’ll keep working out the way it has been the past two weeks and we’ll move on. We’re going to have to hit a little better than we did, especially in the first game, but these guys are something else. They’re gamers. They know when they need to play and they do.”

“We’ve got a real veteran team,” said Spring Garden pitcher/third baseman Weston Kirk, who had two home runs, one in each game. “We’ve got six seniors and seven juniors. I feel like us going into that (third) game is good for us. The past two weeks we’ve gone into it and we’ve won it. I feel like the older people have stepped up in Game 3 and helped our younger people do what we’ve got to do to keep everybody going.”

In Thursday’s first game, Kirk provided the home team with an early punch at the plate and on the mound. He blasted a two-run homer to center field in the bottom of the first inning to give Spring Garden (25-15) a 2-0 lead.

Kirk baffled the Mars Hill batters through four innings, but the Panthers from Florence finally began to get to him in the top of the fifth and sixth innings.

Mars Hill (24-14) tied the game on Koby Keenum’s two-run single to right in the top of the fifth, then the visiting Panthers took the lead for good an inning later on Lane Lambert’s two-run bloop single to left. Mars Hill added another insurance run in the inning for the final.

Cody Watson earned the win in relief of Joshua Bowerman. Watson entered the game in the bottom of the third and allowed just two hits with eight strikeouts.

Peyton Higgins, Jay Dobbs and Lambert each had a pair of hits for Mars Hill. Lambert also walked.

Kirk suffered the tough-luck loss for Spring Garden. He worked six innings and gave up nine hits with three walks and seven strikeouts. His home run was the only extra-base hit the home-standing Panthers had.

Chapel Pope and Landon Gowens had the other two Spring Garden hits. Chaz Pope was hit by pitches twice. Cam Welsh earned a walk.

“Weston pitched one of his best games this year,” Benefield said. “He deserved a better fate, but he didn’t let down.”

After spotting Mars Hill an early run in Game 2, Spring Garden ended its eight-inning scoreless streak with four runs in the top of the third, three in the fourth, and five more in the fifth. Kirk’s three-run blast to right capped the scoring for the home Panthers.

“The at-bat before, I knew I had just missed my pitch by just an inch,” Kirk said. “I knew if he was going to throw me another one I wasn’t going to miss it. I just got up there with a clear mind.”

After a bit of a rocky first inning, Gowens settled into a groove. He allowed just two hits and a walk. The hits Gowens gave up were on a leadoff single to Higgins and a double to right with one out to Lambert. He also issued a walk to Bowerman.

Jay Dobbs, who reached on a fielder’s choice, made his way around to score Mars Hill’s only run, giving the visiting Panthers a 1-0 lead, but Gowens was near untouchable after that. He finished with six strikeouts in earning the win.

“At first I wasn’t feeling like I usually am. I guess it was because we had a shorter week this week,” Gowens said. “I worked my way through and did what I was supposed to. I got behind in the first inning, but I just relied on my team to score runs and I did my job pitching.

“The hits they had were off of curve balls. I knew they weren’t going to catch up with my fast ball, so I just kept throwing it. Every once in a while I’d mix in a curve ball.”

Once again, Bowerman started on the mound for Mars Hill, and once again, he was chased early in favor of Watson.

Spring Garden scored four runs off Bowerman in the third, with the big hit of the inning a two-run double to left off the bat of senior catcher Luke Welsh. Welsh added a single to right center an inning later when Spring Garden scored three more runs to take a 7-1 lead.

Chaz Pope also delivered a two-run double in the inning. He also walked with the bases loaded in the fifth. Welsh and Andrew Floyd both had a pair of hits for the home Panthers.

“We did stay a little more patient in the second game,” Benefield said. “The first two pitchers in the first game pitched in the second game. I thought we hit them both a little better than the first time we saw them.

“I’m just proud of our team. We don’t give up. We just keep battling. I think once we lost that first game they knew what was going to have to happen. They’ve been there, done that.”

And they’re hoping for a little more of that been there, done that in another third game.

“We’ve gone through it multiple times. I think we can pull it off tomorrow,” Gowens said.