CRANBERRY TWP - Christian Necheff was looking for some fingernail polish.

With a large cut oozing blood between the thumb and index finger on his pitching hand, Necheff was looking for something - anything - to stop the bleeding.

He didn't find any fingernail polish in the crowd at North Boundary Park.

Instead, he just polished off Cranberry 2-0 in the deciding game of the Eagle County League semifinals Thursday night.

"He wasn't going to start," said Natrona Heights player-manager Chad Gourley. "But he came to me before the game and wanted the ball."

So Gourley gave it to him, and Necheff added to Cranberry's three-game-long misery with runners on base.

Cranberry left nine more runners stranded on the basepaths, including six in scoring position, to bring its three-game left-on-base total to a staggering 37.

"I don't have many answers," said Cranberry player-manager Bill Clinefelter, shrugging. "We needed to find a way to score runs. I don't know how many we left on base today."

When told the answer, Clinefelter smirked.

"Oh, yeah," Clinefelter said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "That's better."

It wasn't as if Cranberry didn't put the ball in play most of the time. But the Natrona Heights defense always was there to make the play.

"The defense played well behind us," said Gourley, who fielded Brendan Steiner's high chopper down the third base line and fired to first to nip Steiner for the final out of the game with - you guessed it - two runners on. "I don't think we made an error tonight."

Natrona Heights didn't. In fact, in winning the final three games of the best-of-five series, the team made just one error.

That helped it overcome getting outhit in all three of its wins.

"That last inning, we hit a ball on a line and the center fielder (Phil Coffin) makes a diving catch," Clinefelter said. "Then the last out was a bang-bang play, and we have the meat of the order coming up, our two, three, four and five hitters who have all hit over .500 in the series."

But it was not to be for Cranberry, which won the first two games of the series and was three outs away from a sweep before Natrona Heights began its Red Sox-like comeback.

"To be honest, we were down (after the first two losses)," Gourley said. "We were down to our final three outs, and we came back and won. That gave us some life."

Natrona Heights scored a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Chris Turka and added another run in the top of the seventh inning when Gourley singled and scored on a triple by Cy Haponski.

Cranberry pitcher Mike Palano pitched well, giving up just six hits. He surrendered only three runs in 14 innings pitched in the series.

"That was his first loss of the season," Clinefelter said. "He couldn't have pitched any better."

Now Natrona Heights, in only its second season in the Eagle County League, is charged with the task of taking on Saxonburg, which enters the championship series with two playoff sweeps of Wexford and Mars II.

But Gourley said there is nothing for his team to lose.

"We have some confidence," Gourley said. "Saxonburg beat us all three times this year, but we were in all of those games. We have a deep pitching staff. We have six legitimate pitchers. I think we can match up well against them."

Natrona Hts. 100 000 1 - 2 6 0

Cranberry 000 000 0 - 0 8 1

WP:

Christian Necheff (7 IP) 2 strikeouts, 3 walks.

LP:

Mike Palano (7 IP) 2 strikeouts, 1 walk

Natrona Heights (21-13):

Josh Abati 1B, R; Phil Coffin 1B; Chris Turka RBI; Chad Gourley 2-1B, R; Cy Haponski 3B, RBI

Cranberry (19-14-1):

Brendan Steiner 1B; Mike Gogolin 2B; Greg Miller 1B; Adrian Sykes 1B; Justin Patsilevas 3B, 1B; Chris Dubenosky 1B; Jason Swalga 1B

Saturday:

Game 1, Eagle County League Championship Series at Highfield, 6 p.m.