MARS — You will never catch Mars legion baseball coach Cliff Weigand turning down a win, but even he admitted that Tuesday's game against Cranberry Township got a little too close for comfort.

Mars led 11-2 after five innings before Cranberry plated five runs on just a pair of hits in the top of the sixth. Relief pitcher Doogie Cannon entered the game to douse Cranberry's spark and preserve the 11-7 victory at Marburger Field.

“We just needed strikes and outs, but struggled to get them,” said Weigand.

Mars starting pitcher Kevin Weigand was pulled after working five innings and Brandon Wetherholt took the mound at the start of the sixth frame. He was greeted by Dan Komoroski's double to left, Cranberry's third hit of the game to that point.

Three walks, an error and a hit-batsman led to RBI-singles from Corbin Raeford and Justin Gaydos with two outs. When Wetherholt hit Nick Marofsky with a pitch to again load the bases, Cliff Weigand pulled him in favor of Cannon.

Making his second plate appearance of the inning, Komoroski drilled the ball, but right at Mars third baseman Nico Romano to end the threat.

Cannon then pitched a scoreless seventh to earn the save.

Rather than focusing on his team's comeback attempt, Cranberry coach Mike Mills was disTappointed his team found itself down by nine runs in the first place.

Two errors proved costly, leading to three unearned runs earlier in the game.

“We booted the ball and we also left the bases loaded twice,” he said. “You do that and you find yourself in a hole like we did today.”

Kevin Weigand had a strong start, striking out five and walking three while allowing just two unearned runs on one hit in the first five innings.

“It had been about two weeks since he pitched,” Cliff Weigand said, “but he also plays travel ball and was up to 79 pitches and that's why I took him out. He had a lot of pitches in one inning (third), but that was because of an error. I thought he pitched well.”

Free passes heavily aided Mars' four-run third inning.

Mike Colenello drew one off of Cranberry starter Matt McKenna to start the frame, leading to McKenna's exit from the mound. But his replacement, Nate Kouns walked the two batters he faced and was also pulled.

Marofsky was brought in to clean up the mess, but promptly surrendered a two-run double to Wetherholt. Romano followed with an RBI-single.

Mars (3-2) also took advantage of an error and three more walks in the fifth in which five runs were scored. Josh Gaunt drove in a run with a double and Kevin Weigand one with a single.

“We've been hitting well pretty much all season,” Cliff Weigand said. “We lost a 2-1 pitcher's duel to Meridian, but other than that, we've scored a lot of runs.”

Cranberry dropped to 2-5 with the loss.

“It's been tough because we have players on our roster who are involved with high school sports, track and volleyball, and we haven't had all of our players,” said Mills. “This was the most offense we've had in a game this year. Hopefully, we can turn it around.”

Cranberry Twp. 002 005 0 — 7 5 2

Mars 114 050 x — 11 8 3

W: Kevin Weigand 5 IP (5K, 3BB). L: Matt McKenna 2+ IP (2K, 1BB). S: Doogie Cannon 1.1 IP (0K, 0BB).

Cranberry Township (2-5): Corbin Raeford 1B R RBI, Justin Gaydos 1B RBI, Dan Komoroski 1B 2B R, Jack Allman 1B R, Enrique Torres R, Matt McKenna R, Brandon Lynd 1B 2R

Mars (3-2): Isaiah Johnson 2R, Trevor Heim R, Brandon Wetherholt 1B 2B 3R 2RBI, Nico Romano 2-1B R 2RBI, Calin Gribbin R RBI, Tim Rouda R RBI, Kevin Weigand 2-1B RBI, Doogie Cannon 1B RBI, Mike Colenello R, Josh Gaunt 2B R RBI