FAIRVIEW TWP — Two innings. Six left on base. A 1-1 game.

Concern was growing in the Karns City baseball dugout.

Then a pair of underclassmen stepped to the plate and those concerns were quelled.

Junior second baseman Marcus Lantz singled home a run and then sophomore first baseman Nolan Riley hit a three-run triple to give the Gremlins a 5-1 lead over Cranberry in the fifth inning on the way to a 5-3 win Wednesday in the District 9 Class AA semifinals at Fairview Park.

“It’s kind of the downfall of not playing for a week, week and a half,” said Karns City coach Randy Collins. “As much as you do intersquad stuff, it’s just not the same. We had to shake off the rust.”

Cranberry pitcher Brandon Zerbe looked rusty himself.

The right-hander gave himself a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning with an RBI single, but struggled on the mound with his command.

He struck out the side around a walk in the bottom of the first inning, but loaded the bases in both the third and fourth innings.

Zerbe issued a one-out bases-loaded walk to Evan Stitt to tie the game 1-1 in the third, but got out of the jam with a 2-3 double play.

He loaded the bases again in the fourth, but got out of that pickle, too.

Zerbe walked eight in 4 2/3 innings of work. He wasn’t as fortunate in the fifth, giving up the go-ahead RBI single to Lantz before handing the ball to reliever Tylor Ziegler, who then gave up the three-run triple to Riley.

“They’re doing a great job and came up big when we needed it,” Collins said of Lantz and Riley. “That’s not unusual for those two guys. Both of those guys are leading hitters on our team.”

Riley came a few feet from a grand slam. Cranberry right-fielder Nick Varsek made a leaping attempt to make the catch, but crashed into the fence.

“It would have been a remarkable play,” said Cranberry coach Pat Irwin. “He really sacrificed his body, but came up a little short.”

Riley didn’t think he hit it solidly.

“I thought it was going to be skied,” Riley said. “But it carried a little bit.”

Lantz said he didn’t feel much pressure in his at-bat.

“When I walked up there, I just tried to treat it like any other at-bat,” he said.

It turned out Karns City needed that three-run triple from Riley.

Cranberry scored a pair of runs in the top of the fifth on a two-run double by Tyler Gustafson.

Holden Martin, though, settled down and got a called third strike and a pair of groundouts to end the game.

Martin gave up 11 hits, but limited the damage.

Cranberry stranded 11 runners on base.

“Any game that’s this nip-and-tuck, you look at the small miscues and the runners left on base. That was the two things that got us,” Irwin said.

Karns City will get another shot at Moniteau in the District 9 Class AA title game next week on a day and at a site and time to be determined.

The Gremlins lost two one-run games to the Warriors this season.

“When we had the second loss to them, we talked about being humbled,” Collins said. “We said we were going to see them again and when we see them again, it’s going to be the one that counts.”

Cranberry 100 000 2 — 3 11 1

Karns City 001 040 x — 5 6 0

W: Holden Martin 7IP (5K, 3BB). L: Brandon Zerbe 4.2IP (6K, 8BB).

Cranberry: Evan Lutz 1B, Austin Rex 1B, Tyler Gustafson 1B 2B 2-RBI, Zerbe 1B RBI, Jake Felmlee 1V, Nolan Brandon 1V, Seth Pochran 1B, Tylor Ziegler 3-1B

Karns City: Martin 1B, Evan Stitt 1B RBI, Marcus Lantz 1B RBI, Hunter Schaffner 1B, Nolan Riley 3B 1B 3-RBI

TBD: Karns City vs. Moniteau in District 9 Class AA championship game, site and time TBD