MARS — Cranberry Township's offense was running on all cylinders Wednesday evening.

But the No. 5 seed in the Eagle County League baseball playoffs had to sweat out its latest win with its defense in the field.

Cranberry entered the bottom of the seventh holding a 12-8 edge over Mars II in the third and deciding game of a first-round playoff series at Marburger Field.

Bill Clinefelter, Cranberry's player/coach, replaced starter Dave Knechtel with Bill Stehle at the beginning of the inning.

But two singles and a walk loaded the bases with no outs.

Stehle walked in one run and gave up another tally on a base hit to left, but allowed no more in a 12-10 win that sends Cranberry into the semifinals to face Saxonburg.

"He last pitched for us on Saturday," Clinefelter said of Stehle. "I didn't lose confidence in him tonight."

After walking Matt Rovnan with the bases loaded to make it 12-9, Stehle struck out Ryan Leonberg.

With one out, Brian Rosswog laced a single to left field, which scored Josh Rape.

Mars II coach Scott Shankel gave Andy Boggess the green light as he rounded third.

Boggess, who had started the play at second base, was thrown out by Cranberry left fielder Justin Patsilevas.

"I knew that it was going to be a bang-bang play at the plate," said Shankel. "But if the throw's a little off the mark, he's safe. It was going to take a perfect throw to get him."

With two outs, Mars still had runners on first and second base, but Stehle got Chet Shaffer to bounce into a fielder's choice to end the game.

Mars put up 10 runs on 14 hits in the loss.

"Our offense has been the story of our game this season, and I was pleased with the way we hit the ball today," Shankel said.

As good as Mars' offense was, Cranberry's was even better.

The visitors tallied six extra-base hits, including four home runs — one each from Hugh Mulvey, Justin Papania, Knechtel and Keith Kubit.

The only inning Cranberry did not score was the seventh, and it tallied at least two hits in five of seven frames.

"We hit the ball (Tuesday) and I was glad to see that continue today," said Clinefelter, referring to his team's six runs on 11 hits in its win in Game 2.

Cranberry entered the top of the second down 2-1, but received a two-run single from Chris Dubensky and an RBI-base hit from Mark Weimer to pull ahead 4-2.

Though Knechtel allowed eight runs on 11 hits in six innings, Mars held the lead again.

"He's a battler," Clinefelter said of Knechtel. "He's a Division I pitcher at Duquesne and he's always loose. Nothing ever gets to him."

Mars used three hurlers in the game, beginning with starter Mike Skurko, who pitched four innings and left the game trailing 9-5.

He was relieved by Game 1 winner Ryan Leonberg, who allowed three runs on four hits in 1X\c innings.

Finally, Shankel brought in Shaffer to finish the game.

"We had some injuries to our pitching staff this year," Shankel said. "We got through the regular season OK but it hurt us in the playoffs."

Cranberry Twp. 133 212 0—12 15 1Mars II 211 103 2—10 14 2Dave Knechtel, Bill Stehle (7) and Hugh Mulvey; Mike Skurko, Ryan Leonberg (5, 2k, 0bb), Chet Shaffer (1k, 1bb) and Randy Schuetz.

W: Knechtel (6k, 1bb).

L: Skurko (2k, 1bb).

SV: Stehle (1k, 2bb).

Cranberry Township (19-11): Justin Patsilevas 2B R, Hugh Mulvey 2B HR 2R 2 RBI, Justin Papania 1B HR 2R RBI, Dave Knechtel HR 2 RBI, Keith Kubit 1B HR 3R 3 RBI, Brendon Steiner 3-1B R, Ben Follett 2-1B R, Chris Dubensky 1B 3 RBI, Mark Weimer 1B RBI, Bill Stehle R

Mars II (19-11): Randy Schuetz 2-1B R, Aaron Albert 1B R RBI, Brian Hart 2-1B 2R, Josh Rape 2-1B R, Andy Boggess 2-1B 2B 3 RBI, Matt Rovnan RBI, Ryan Leonberg 1B R, Brian Rosswog 1B HR 2 RBI, Chet Shaffer R, Adam Schmidhammer HR 2R 3 RBI

Friday: Cranberry Township vs. Saxonburg, Game 1 of a best-of-5 series, 6 p.m. at Highfield Park