MARS—Saxonburg I pitcher Nate Buttenfield couldn't have asked for a better Eagle County Baseball Championship Series.

He seemed to be the only thing that could slow Mars I down.

Buttenfield, who pitched a two-hitter against Mars in Game 1 of the best-of-five series last Saturday, limited Mars to four hits in going the distance in an 8-2 Game 3 victory Wednesday, giving Saxonburg a sweep as well as its third consecutive title.

Buttenfield struck out seven batters and walked none, allowing a pair of solo home runs to Ron Talik and Rob Fester.

"Two runs in 14 innings. That's unbelievable," said Saxonburg coach Dan Cunningham. "You have to feel good about that."

"I was on and off (Wednesday) but I felt good," said Buttenfield. "Mars is a great team, but fortunately for us, things went our way."

Buttenfield's lone mistake through three innings was Talik's home run in the second inning to give Mars a 1-0 lead.

In the fourth inning, however, Mars pitcher Steve Cunningham gave up a leadoff double to Curt Schnur, then a home run to AustinLeffler for a 2-1 Saxonburg advantage.

Fester homered in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, but Saxonburg scored three runs in the fifth inning and three more in the sixth to doom Mars.

Brendan Malone's two-run double and Schnur's RBI single highlighted the fifth inning for a 5-2 lead.

Mars had a chance to sneak back in when Buttenfield hit Dan DeMarco and Matt Nowaczynski with pitches in the bottom of the fifth, the latter with two outs, but he struck out Rob Arata to end the frame.

In the sixth, Saxonburg closed out the scoring thanks to an RBI single by Malone and a two-run single by Schnur.

"We knew we needed to score some runs (Wednesday)," said Mars coach Rob Fester. "We knew it would be tough. I had confidence we could come back. We ran into Nate and Nate is Nate. He's a great pitcher."

It was as late as last Friday when Saxonburg and Zelienople were tied two games apiece in the semifinal series with the winner of the deciding fifth game advancing to the championship series for the right to meet Mars.

Saxonburg won that game, then swept Mars, which had lost only two games during the regular season, both to Saxonburg.

"This team was very, very, very focused," said Cunningham. "We wanted this bad. We felt we had the team to do it.

"We felt very good about playing here. We were very confident coming into the series."

Notes: Steve Cunningham lasted 4 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking three ... Mars did defeat Saxonburg once during the regular season (2-1) ... Malone and Schnur each finished with three hits and three RBI and Phil Butch added two singles.

Saxonburg I 000 233 0—8 10 0Mars I 010 100 0—2 4 1WP: Nate Buttenfield (7 IP) 7 strikeouts, 0 walks.

LP: Steve Cunningham (4 1/3 IP) 3 strikeouts, 3 walks

Saxonburg: Phil Butch 2-1B; Brendan Malone 2-2B, 1B, 3 RBI; Curt Schnur 2-1B, 2B, 3 RBI; Austin Leffler HR, 2 RBI; Dan Pickard 1B

Mars: Rob Fester HR, Ron Talik HR; Matt Colella 1B; Dan DeMarco 1B