CALLERY — Ryan Ganter effortlessly glided toward the ball in left field and plucked it from the sky.

When his glove squeezed it, Mars II remained alive in the Eagle County League baseball playoffs with a 5-0 win over Harmony Wednesday night.

Mars II, the defending league champion, faced elimination with a loss to Harmony. Ganter and pitcher Scott Jordan made sure that did not happen.

"We had our backs against the wall," said Mars II manager and shortstop Josh Rape. "We respond well to that. We play better that way."

Jordan shut down Harmony by pounding the zone with his fastball and finishing off hitters with a hard breaking ball.

The former Karns City High star struck out nine and scattered six hits.

The only jam Jordan faced came in the fifth inning, when he put runners on second and third with one out in a 1-0 game.

But Jordan struck out Zach Rengers and Todd Purvis to end the threat.

"We felt confident with having Scotty on the mound," Rape said. "He's been our best pitcher all year, for sure. I don't think he has given up more than two earned runs in any game this season, so we felt we didn't need to score a whole lot of runs."

Mars II didn't until the bottom of the sixth inning.

Clinging to a 1-0 lead, the club scored four times, keyed by a three-run home run by Ganter to give Jordan some much-needed breathing room.

"I tell you what, going out there in the seventh was a lot better than going out in the fourth, fifth and sixth, I'll tell you that much," Jordan said. "When Ganter hit that home run it really lifted the team."

Most of the Mars II team is made up of Mars High graduates. Rape, Brian Hart, Ryan Leonberg and Chet Shaffer were juniors and seniors at Mars High when the Planets won back-to-back section titles.

Gantner and Matt Rovnan also played for Mars in high school.

They have grown up together in the Eagle County League and have turned Mars II into a yearly threat in a league that has been dominated by Saxonburg and Mars for more than a decade.

"It's nice to have the same group of guys from year to year," Rape said. "And the guys we've added here and there have fit in great with our team."

Even Jordan, who didn't see eye-to-eye with Rape when the two were in high school and squared off against each other during the American Legion season.

"Josh and I had our disagreement in high school," said Jordan, who joined Mars II three years ago. "I called him up and said, 'Dude, I heard you have a team.' He said, 'You never talked to me in high school.'

"But he was nice enough to let me come on and now we are real good friends. We always look back at in now and laugh about it," he added.

The closeness the team shares allowed it to overcome much adversity last season, when Mars II barely made the playoffs but stormed through the postseason for its first championship.

It finds itself with the prospect of taking a similar road to the title this season.

Mars II will face Mars in the first game of a best-of-5 second-round playoff series Friday at Marburger Field.

"You can't look too far ahead," Jordan said. "If you do, you can miss what is right in front of you."

Harmony 000 000 0 — 0 6 1Mars II 100 004 x — 5 6 1W: Scott Jordan 7 IP (9K, 1BB).

L: Greg Slack 6IP (5K, 2BB).

Harmony: Nate Statzer 2B 1B, Slack 2-1B

Mars II: Chet Shaffer 2B, John Crummy 2B RBI, Ryan Leonberg 1B RBI, Ryan Ganter HR 3-RBI

Friday: Mars II at Mars, Game 1 of best-of-5 series at Marburger Field, 6 p.m.