CALLERY — Tim Geibel’s dominance on the mound brought Mars II one step closer to a return trip to the Eagle County League championship series.

The team’s ace had a no-hitter through five innings before a Cranberry rally fell short in Mars II’s 6-4 victory in Game 1 of a best-of-five semifinal series Monday at Callery Field.

In six innings of work, Geibel walked three and struck out four.

“We went all-in for this win today,” said Mars II player/manager Eric King. “Tim’s our best pitcher and he pitched great. I could tell he was getting a bit tired at the end there, but he beared down.”

Geibel retired 10 in a row, including striking out the side in the fourth frame. His streak of consecutive outs ended only because of an error behind him to start the top of the fifth inning. Two walks loaded the bases with two outs before Geibel got Bill Clinefelter to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

“We saw him (Geibel) in relief earlier this season and it was a very small sample size,” said Clinefelter, Cranberry Township’s player/manager. “But his reputation is solid and his performance today came as no surprise.”

Cranberry (19-10-1) finally cracked the scoreboard in the sixth. Following a one-out single from Tanner Master, Ben Murray launched a two-run home run to left that cut Mars II’s lead to 6-2.

Geibel retired the next two batters to end his outing.

Reliever Alex Caravella gave up a two-run homer to Dave Coradi in the seventh, then struck out three straight batters to end the game.

Geibel and Cranberry starter Eddie Emes had turned the game into a pitcher’s duel early on. Emes pitched three scoreless innings before running into trouble in the fourth.

Three straight singles off the bats of Trent Smith, Evan Oswald and Alex Ziegler gave the hosts a 1-0 lead. Oswald came home on a wild pitch, Eric King singled in a third run and Ryan Leonberg scored on an error for a 4-0 edge.

“He (Emes) has good stuff,” said King. “It helps when your lineup gets another look at a guy the second time through.”

Mars II added two more tallies in the fifth with Leonberg and King smacking back-to-back run-scoring singles. The team managed 10 hits in the game, including eight combined in the fourth and fifth.

“Getting through an Eagle County regular season is always a grind,” said King, “but when all of our guys are here, our lineup does pretty well.”

Emes pitched six innings with five strikeouts and four walks.

Clinefelter is taking some positives away from the defeat.

“I think we can take some confidence away from the end of the game (two home runs),” he said.

Game 2 is scheduled for 6 p.m. today at North Boundary Park.

“In a best-of-five, you don’t want to go down 0-2,” said Clinefelter. “This is as close to a must-win as you can get.”

Cranberry Twp. 000 002 2 — 4 3 2

Mars II 000 420 x — 6 10 1

W: Tim Geibel 6 IP (4K, 3BB). L: Eddie Emes 6 IP (5K, 4BB).

Cranberry Township (19-10-1): Tanner Master 1B R, Ben Murray HR 2RBI, John Davis R, Dave Coradi HR 2RBI

Mars II (20-6-1): John Crummy 1B, Trent Smith 1B 2R, Evan Oswald 2-1B R, Alex Ziegler 2-1B 2R RBI, Matt Eperesi 1B, Ryan Leonberg 1B R RBI, Eric King 2-1B 2RBI

Today: Mars II vs. Cranberry Township, Game 2 at North Boundary Park, 6 p.m.