PLUM — Each time Mars took a step forward, Fox Chapel pushed back.

With one gone and the tying run at the plate in the top of the seventh inning, Foxes starting pitcher Jeremy Haigh forced the Planets into a game-ending double play, quelling Mars’ final chance to get anything going in a WPIAL Class 5A first-round playoff clash Wednesday night.

Fox Chapel (13-8) advanced with a 6-4 victory.

The bottom of the first was a sign of things to come, as Planets (9-10) starting pitcher Jackson Fox needed only four offerings to get the first two outs. Consecutive doubles by Jeremy Haigh and Dominic Cassol followed, then Fox walked Benjamin Demotte before Jack Resek tacked on two more runs with yet another double.

“We knew if we could come out and get up early, we thought we had a pretty good chance tonight,” Foxes coach James Hastings said. “That was huge, getting those three.”

All told, Fox threw 26 pitches in the frame. In none of the five after that would he have to hurl more than 18.

“You could tell that the situation was getting to him, whenever he had got those two quick outs in the first inning, then they started putting some things together,” Mars coach Jason Thompson said. “The pressure was getting to him, and he was getting on himself.

Logan Hoffman tripled with one out in the home second, then Joseph Geller scored him on a sac fly. The Planets' No. 9 hitter — Chase Winstead — led off the next half-inning with a ground-rule double and was brought home by Jake Johnson two batters later. Benji Astbury singled in-between and later scored on a wild pitch.

Haigh set down nine straight Planet batters after Johnson’s RBI groundout.

“We struggled to get some quality at-bats,” Thompson said. “We normally get three quality at-bats in the lineup through nine. We were trying to get five or six, and we never really put anything together … Little bits and pieces, but nothing sustained.”

Mars entered the bottom sixth down by just one thanks to back-to-back RBI hits by Zachary Orosz and Charlie Bickel. Fox Chapel leadoff hitter Zachary Johnston responded with an RBI single that brought in Cassol, who led off the half-inning by being hit by a pitch.

Planets sophomore Finn Seideneck had a one-out pinch-hit single in the seventh.

“It could be frustrating, but on one end, it kind of shows the resiliency of our guys,” Thompson said. “We kept coming back and kept coming back.”

It was a bittersweet ending for the coach and his eight seniors —Samuel Schultz, Thomas McLaren, Nolan Scott, Owen Smith, Kyle Haddad, Richard Lusk, Astbury, Orosz and Winstead.

“This group in particular — just being around five years, watching them grow from young teenage guys into men going into the next phase of their lives — this is a really hard group to say goodbye to,” Thompson said.

Mars 002 002 0 — 4 7 0

Fox Chapel 310 011 x — 6 9 0

W: Jeremy Haigh 7IP (4K, 0BB). L: Jeremy Fox 6IP (3K, 2BB).

Mars (9-10): Benji Astbury 1B R, Jake Johnson 1B RBI, Luke Goodworth 1B R, Zachary Orosz 2B RBI R, Charlie Bickel 1B RBI, Chase Winstead 2B R, Finn Seideneck 1B.

Fox Chapel (13-8): Zachary Johnston 2-1B RBI, Jeremy Haigh 2-2B R, Dominc Cassol 2B 1B 2RBI, R, Benjamin Demotte R, Jack Resek 2B 1B 2RBI, Troy Susnak R, Logan Hoffman 3B R, Joseph Geller RBI

North Catholic 11, Elizabeth Forward 1

To the tune of nine base knocks — four of which went for extra bases — North Catholic dispatched Elizabeth Forward, 11-1, in five innings at Plum High School. Ryan Shantz, Tommy Koroly, and Sean Dewey all had multi-hit performances for the Trojans (10-10) in the WPIAL Class 4A first-round tilt. They’ll move on to play Hopewell in the quarterfinals.

“We had nine guys in the order, and all the guys hit today,” North Catholic coach Andy Przybylek said. “It’s tough to beat you when you don’t make errors, you don’t walk anybody, and that’s what we did today.”

The Warriors (7-12) kicked off the game with three hits in a row, and Cy Herchelroath pushed across his side’s only run with a double. All nine of North Catholic’s batters came to the dish during the Trojans’ first turn.

Shantz finished matters with a base-clearing, three-RBI double in the bottom fifth. Blake Primrose reached on a walk and eventually scored on a passed ball the inning prior, and Drew Doherty and Koroly both had triples in a three-run third.

Elizabeth Forward 100 00 — 1 7 2

North Catholic 303 14 — 11 9 0

W: Tommy Schafale 5IP (2K, 1BB). L: Cy Herchelroath 3IP (5K, 2BB).

Elizabeth Forward (7-12): Charlie Nigut 2-1B, AJ Grese 2-1B R, Cy Herchelroath 2B RBI, Hunter DeRoss 1B, Mitchell Vuick 1B

North Catholic (10-10): Tommy Schafale 1B, Marco Napolitano R, Ryan Shantz 2B 1B 3RBI R, Drew Doherty 1B R, Blake Primrose R, Tommy Koroly 3B 1B R, Josef Safar 2B RBI 2R, Owen Beatrice R, Sean Dewey 3B 1B 2R