Imagine a baseball game where no one worries about pitch count, players drop down effective bunts and the fielding is clean as a whistle.

Such a game didn’t take long to play when baseball was played like that.

It still doesn’t take long to play a ballgame that way. I saw one just the other day and the game was over in just two hours.

Game 4 of the Eagle County Championship Series between Mars and Cranberry Township took place Thursday night at the Mars Athletic Complex. The game started at 6 p.m. on a field with no lights. It ended without a lack of sunlight being a factor.

The infield grass was thick. Zach Murray of Mars and Jesse Clary of Cranberry Township took advantage by laying bunts down the third base line in that grass. The respective pitchers could do nothing but pick up the deadened baseball and hold it.

How often do you see that in a professional baseball game these days?

Mars pitcher Matt DeSalvo threw 135 pitches in going the distance. He looked a little fatigued in the fifth inning — walking four — but finished strong, striking out six of the last nine hitters he faced, including the last three.

Cranberry’s Matt Evans threw 83 pitches in relief, using a sidearm — almost underhand motion — to control the Mars hitters. He walked none in 6.2 innings.

The defense included a runner being thrown out at the plate from center field and solid infield play. There was one error committed the entire game.

It was baseball the way baseball was played years ago.

I, for one, appreciated that.

Steeler games are back

The game meant more to the coaches — and to fringe players in terms of possible roster cuts — than it should to any fan, really, but the Pittsburgh Steelers played their first preseason game Friday night.

Who’s going to win the punting job? Who are the inside linebackers going to be? How is the secondary going to shake out? All of these are legitimate questions that are finally beginning to be answered.

Just seeing the Black and Gold back on the gridiron — against Baker Mayfield, no less — is just plain fun.

Worth watching

As college football camps open up, it’s worth keeping our eyes on a couple of Butler County products: Butler graduate Jake Kradel at Pitt and Knoch graduate Scott Fraser at Grove City.

Kradel is considered one of the top centers in the country going into this season and is trying to show NFL scouts he can play that position at the next level. Fraser is already high up on Grove City’s all-time catches and yards receiving list and continues his assault on that record book as a preseason All-American.

Both have plenty to play for — and plenty to be proud of.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle