ADAMS TWP — Knoch baseball coach George Bradley insisted his blood pressure was fine.

“It was fun,” Bradley said. “We’re rivals. It always goes to the end. They know that and we know that.”

Both Bradley and Mars coach Andy Bednar, however, had their blood boiling at various times Monday afternoon at the Mars Athletic Complex.

The game was riddled with miscues, oddities — and a little controversy thrown in — as Knoch nearly blew a late 5-0 lead and held on for a 5-4 win.

The Knights had two runners declared out for interfering with throws to the first base bag. The second incident involved Knoch pitcher Alex Stobert, who took off for first after a swinging third strike got away from Mars catcher Zach Miracle at the end of the top of the third inning.

Stobert collided with Mars first baseman Dylan Rotz and not only was called out, but was ejected for what the umpires deemed, after a 15 minute discussion, was malicious contact.

“It was unfortunate Stobert got thrown out,” Bradley said. “I disagree with the umpire. They said it was purposefully whatever. That’s why they threw him out. They shut me up. I couldn’t speak. You can’t protest in this league. You can’t do much.”

Bradley said Stobert was protecting himself and had just as much right to the bag as Rotz. Two years ago, Stobert suffered an injury on a similar play at first base.

“(Alex) is gun shy,” Bradley said.

Bednar said he thought Stobert lowered his shoulder.

“I just thought it was more of an issue of the malicious contact than who had the right to the base,” Bednar said. “I thought it was more a function of that.”

It was the second time this season a Knoch player was ejected after a play at first base. Against Deer Lakes earlier this month, Cole Shinsky was ejected after an umpire ruled he purposefully stepped on the ankle of Lancers’ first baseman Zach Butler.

“It’s tough enough with everybody after the No. 1 team, and that’s how it should be, but when you start seeing stuff take place like, ‘What? What are you talking about?’ That upset them,” Bradley said.

When Stobert left, Knoch had already built a 3-0 lead with three unearned runs in the top of the third inning.

Mars committed three throwing errors in the frame that led directly to all three runs.

“One of the things we preach, especially when we play a good team like Knoch, is you can’t give away free bases,” Bednar said. “We did that in the third inning. When you give good teams three runs and free bases, it’s difficult to overcome.”

Jeremy Frazier relieved Stobert and cruised through 2 2/3 innings before giving up three straight hits — the first three hits of the game for Mars — in the bottom of the sixth inning. Jack Anderson drove in a run with a single, but Frazier got out of the jam with a 5-1 lead.

Dom Bucko relieved Frazier for the bottom of the seventh and ran into big trouble.

A walk, error and bloop single loaded the bases, prompting Bradley to put Frazier back on the mound.

Frazier promptly walked No. 9 hitter Isaiah Johnson to make it a 5-2 game and then back-to-back, one-out hits by Zarek Simkovich and Jack Anderson made it 5-4 with the bases loaded.

But Frazier got Dave Anderson to hit a one-hopper back to him, flipped to catcher Dylan Swarmer for the second out and then Swarmer fired a strike to Rotz to finish off the 1-2-3 double play and the game.

“We battled,” Bednar said. “It just wasn’t enough. We just couldn’t get the big hit when we needed it. ”

Dave Anderson picked up the loss. He struck out nine and gave up just two earned runs.

“He competed all game,” Bednar said of his pitcher. “He kept us in the game. I told him, we couldn’t have asked more from him than that. He deserved a little better fate than what he got today.”

The win puts Knoch back atop the Section 5-AAA standings, a half-game up on Mars.

Bradley said there was no urgency heading into this game with the threat of falling 1 1/2 games behind Mars with a loss.

“I told them I’d tell them when it’s a must-win,” Bradley said. “This wasn’t one. Was it nice to get one? Sure. But it wouldn’t have been fatal if we lost. If we lost, then every game would have been a must-win after it.”

Knoch 003 101 0 — 5 7 3

Mars 000 001 3 — 4 6 3

W: Jeremy Frazier 4IP (6K, 1BB). L: Dave Anderson 7IP (9K, 3BB).

Knoch (6-3, 5-1): P.J. Gourley 2B, Logan Hickey 2B 1B RBI, Dom Bucko 1B, Michael McCarty 2B, Brandon Kowalski 1B RBI, Dylan Swarmer 1B, Jake Herrit 2B

Mars (5-3, 4-1): Zarek Simkovich 2-1B RBI, Jack Anderson 2-1B 2-RBI, Frazier 1B, Isaiah Johnson BB RBI

Today: Deer Lakes at Mars

Wednesday: Hampton at Knoch