One of those matchups happened Monday evening in the Bobcats’ home opener against Ankeny Centennial, the No. 4 ranked team in Class 4A by the Iowa High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Centennial made quick work of Marshalltown’s youthful lineup — dispatching the Bobcats 16-0 in three innings in game one and 15-0 in five innings in game two.

Without Nick Rebik and Ziek Slocum due to injury, an already young Marshalltown squad had to include more newcomers into the lineup Monday, and head coach Todd Oberthien said this is an opportunity to find out who wants to win starting spots in a “wide-open” lineup.

“The biggest thing we’re taking away from these games is to go out there and figure out who’s going to compete for us,” Oberthien said. “Who’s going to be able to put their body on the line and their effort on the line and go be a competitor and earn a spot on our team?

“It’s like wide open right now with a lot of young kids, and we try to give kids as many opportunities as we can in and out of the lineup.”

The Bobcats were no-hit in game one and committed nine errors to make things relatively smooth sailing for the visitors. Junior Keiler Blue started game one on the mound for Marshalltown, going for 2 2/3 innings and allowing 16 runs on 11 hits — only two of which were earned due to the Bobcats’ issues with fielding. Alex Thompson got the final out of the third inning for Marshalltown.

In game two, there were still seven errors but the Bobcats did a better job of making Centennial work for its runs. Seth Smith started the game at pitcher and went 1 1/3 inning, giving up nine runs (five earned) on five hits and walking two batters. Freshman Zandor Stupp came in and threw 2 2/3 innings with five runs given up on seven hits. Tayven Dutton pitched the fifth inning and gave up one run.

At the plate, the Bobcats woke up and recorded five hits — getting more aggressive and confident as the game went on, something Oberthien said the coaching staff is trying to emphasize to the squad.

“We try to tell them every day to just be super confident and know you’re going to go up there and get a hit,” Oberthien said. “If you don’t get a hit, just know you’re going to do your job, we try and preach just to have a quality at-bat. That hopefully calms them down a little bit.”

Stupp led the Bobcats with two hits while Dutton, Thompson and Smith recorded one hit apiece.

Marshalltown hosts Newton at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.