MARS — Kevin Vangheluwe was happy to see the rain Wednesday.

The Mars II pitcher was nursing the symptoms of the flu ahead of his scheduled start in Game 4 of the Eagle County League baseball championship series against Mars.

The rainout gave him an extra 24 hours to convalesce.

It came in handy.

Vangheluwe, a Michigan transplant, tossed a three-hitter Thursday in a 3-1 win that handed Mars II the league championship.

“The other guys didn’t want a rainout (Wednesday),” Vangheluwe said. “But I did. I was like, ‘Come on. Rain harder. I’m still feeling it.”

Vangheluwe didn’t pitch like he was ill. He got a steady stream of ground balls with his cutter and stifled the Mars bats.

Mars struggled at the plate in the series and scored just two combined runs in Games 2, 3 and 4.

The loss ended a six-year run atop the league for Mars and was the second title for Mars II.

“We expected to win,” Vangheluwe said. “We did what we had to do. We made a lot of great plays. And it helped not walking anybody.”

Vangheluwe was in his first season in the league and with Mars II. But the meaning of the win wasn’t lost on him.

“I heard about how good (Mars) has been,” Vangheluwe said. “But we weren’t too scared.”

Vangheluwe was also helped by two stellar plays behind him, both made against Mars batter Cody Herald.

Ryan Leonberg made a diving stab of a hard groundball by Herald in the first inning to rob him of a hit.

In the fourth inning, Dustin Lalle made a diving catch on a sinking liner by Herald to save another hit.

Meanwhile, Mars II did just enough against Mars starter Matt DeSalvo.

Mars II got to DeSalvo for all three of its runs in the third inning.

Ryan Fennell had an RBU single and Corey Wheeler added a two-run single in the frame.

With the low-scoring games in the series, a three-run lead was big.

“The big thing was to get one across and then work from there,” Vangheluwe said. “We were planning for a long, low-scoring game.”

The scores of the four games in the series were: 4-2 (Mars II win), 1-0 (Mars win), 1-0 and 3-1 (Mars II wins).

“Kevin, what a pick-up for us this year,” said Mars II player/manager Eric King. “He’s a gamer. He’s the guy we wanted on the mound in this game and he threw a gem.”

Mars got its only run against Vangheluwe in the bottom of the sixth inning. Scott Ventura doubled with one out and then Herald drove him home with a two-out single.

Mars went down 1-2-3 in the seventh to end its epic run.

“They made some good plays,” said Mars player/manager Brendan Malone. “We hit the ball hard — something we haven’t done all series — just right into the glove.”

Other than his rough third inning, DeSalvo was dominant, striking out 14 and giving up just five hits.

“He made one bad pitch — his only bad pitch in 10 years,” Malone said.

Malone said his team will be back next year to try to reclaim the title.

“We’ll have the same team, plus some other guys next year,” Malone said. “We’ll be ready to win it again.”

Mars II will relish this win now.

“The way our guys battled and came through, it was a great year,” King said. “Everyone on this team jells together pretty well. Hopefully these guys will come back next year and we can keep it going. We have a nice little rivalry with them going. It’d be nice to see it continue for a few more years.”

Mars II 003 000 0 — 3 5 0

Mars 000 001 0 — 1 3 0

W: Kevin Vangheluwe 7IP (5K, 0BB). L: Matt DeSalvo 7IP (14K, 2BB).

Mars II: Dustin Lalle 1B, John Crummy 1B, Tim Geibel 2B, Ryan Fennell 1B RBI, Corey Wheeler 1B 2-RBI

Mars: Cody Herald 1B RBI, Sam Sibeto 1B, Scott Ventura 2B