CALLERY — All Mars player/manager Brendan Malone wanted was to get off to a better start in Game 3 of the Eagle County baseball championship series.

Mars did so as it rebounded from its six-run loss in Game 2 with a 12-1 victory over Cranberry Township Thursday night at Callery Field in Game 3.

“(Cranberry) ran into the similar problem we ran into yesterday,” Malone said. “Just bunch of walks and put themselves in a hole — it’s hard to recover after that.”

Mars took a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five series.

In the first inning, Mars took a comfortable 4-0 lead fueled by four walks by Cranberry pitcher Lake Pry.

Cranberry managed a run in the top of the third, but Mars answered back with three to take a 7-1 lead heading into the fourth.

“When they go up 4-0 in the first it’s hard to bounce back from that,” Cranberry player/manager Bill Clinefelter said. “But it’s a five-game series — still in it.”

Mars added one more in the fourth before two home runs in the fifth by Greg Stokes and Dan Penberthy forced the mercy rule on Cranberry to give Mars the 11-run victory.

Matt DeSalvo got the win for Mars with seven strikeouts and four walks through five innings.

“It’s what you expect,” Clinefelter said on DeSalvo. “Poised, experienced pitcher — he’s good.”

DeSalvo surrendered just three hits on the day, with two of them coming from Cranberry’s Justin Stewart, who went 2-for-3 on the day with a single and a double.

Stewart is 6-for-10 in the series, with four singles and two doubles.

Five Mars players had multiple hits behind Stokes, Penberthy, Malone, Scott Ventura and Brian Slavicek.

Pry took the loss for Cranberry with three strikeouts and six walks through four innings.

With the series shifting back to Cranberry for Game 4, Mars can expect to see more of what it saw in Game 2 from Cranberry pitcher Mike Patsch, who is an off-speed pitcher.

“We’ll just have to be ready for him now that we saw him the other day,” Malone said. “Gotta figure it out quick.”

In Game 2 Patsch’s stats were nothing over the top with just one strikeout and two walks through six innings.

However he held Mars to just four hits with a strong defense behind him.

“I think that’s kind of the recipe for success for us,” Clinefelter said. “Mixed speeds, you can’t throw many fastballs — just can’t do it against these guys.”

Game 4 will take place Friday with a 6 p.m. start time at North Boundary Park.

Cranberry 001 00x x — 1 3 2

Mars 403 14x x — 12 13 0

W: Matt DeSalvo 5IP (7K, 4BB). L: Lake Pry 4IP (3K, 6BB).

Cranberry: Justin Stewart 1B, 2B, Jeremy Iellimo 1B

Mars: Greg Stokes 1B, HR, Brendan Malone 1B, 2B, Dan Penberthy 1B, HR

Friday: Mars at Cranberry, 6 p.m. at North Boundary Park