Like Janus, the Greek god of drama, Warren Central’s baseball team has been a squad of two faces this season.

When the Vikings are rolling, getting timely hits and filling up the strike zone, they can beat nearly anyone. But on the other side of the coin, they can beat themselves just as easily.

Tuesday, they showed both sides. Fortunately, it was the good side that prevailed in the end, as the Vikings earned a 9-8 topsy-turvy win over Division 4-6A foe Greenville-Weston.

Brandon Gates and Devon Bell came up huge for Warren Central (9-8, 3-2 Division 4-6A) in the clutch. After Greenville-Weston erased an 8-1 lead with a seven-run sixth to knot the contest, Gates came up in the bottom of the frame and took advantage of Beau Wallace’s walk and steal, ripping a double to plate the lead run.

In the top of the seventh, Bell, who came on relief of Chase Ladd, retired the side for the save.

“Overall, I thought we swung the bats well with runners in scoring position,” WC coach Josh Abraham said. “Chase gave us a big lift in the sixth and we put a lot on Devon’s shoulders in the seventh. But he threw a lot of strikes and got us out of it.”

After Darius Kennedy ripped a solo shot, WC starter Beau Wallace was cruising on the mound and the offense kept putting numbers on the board. Through the next four innings, Wallace pitched around singles and errors, getting the big outs when he needed.

The Vikings tied the game, 1-1 in the first on Clayton Ashley’s inside-the-park home run as Greenville centerfielder Devonte Rainey couldn’t get a glove on Ashley’s hotshot line drive that rolled to the wall. The Vikings took the lead with four runs in the third, keyed by a two-RBI double by Will Stegall and a RBI double by Bill McRight. The lead ballooned to 8-1 after a three-run fourth. Stegall notched his third RBI of the night on a single and Bell drove in a pair of runs with a double.

But then the wheels fell off the proverbial wagon. Wallace, who was up around 115 pitches, struggled with control and the basepaths filled up. Errors piled up, the costliest on Darius Kennedy’s single that rolled to the wall that allowed the Hornets (6-8, 0-3) to clear the bases. The Vikings got two outs, but couldn’t get the third as the tying run scored on a passed ball.

Wallace pitched 52⁄3 innings, striking out five, but giving up eight runs.

Ladd came in, got the final out and earned the victory. He hit one batter in the seventh before being pulled for Bell.

Despite the seven-run, three-error inning, Abraham didn’t see any letup in effort from his charges.

“We coached against that and I didn’t see any letdown in effort,” Abraham said. “But in spots, we were a little too relaxed at times,º and in the sixth inning, we might have been lackadaiscal in spots.”