UPPER ST. CLAIR — Will Bednar could take a deep breath.

Before the Mars sophomore pitcher even set foot on the mound, he was staked to a 2-0 lead in one of the biggest games in Planets' baseball history.

“It's a lot easier to just throw pitches and rely on my players when we're up two runs,” Bednar said, grinning. “It's a lot better than being down.”

With that cushion, Bednar was able to relax — and was able to be masterful.

Bednar scattered four hits and struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings to lead Mars to a 4-1 win over No. 1 seed West Allegheny in the WPIAL 5A semifinals Wednesday afternoon at Boyce Mayview Park.

The win sends the Planets to their first ever WPIAL title game. They will play Latrobe at Washington Wild Things Park either Tuesday or Wednesday.

“I couldn't be more proud of our guys right now,” said Mars coach Andy Bednar, Will's father. “It was an unbelievable performance.”

Coach Bednar was understandably proud of pitcher Bednar, who had a slow, sharp-breaking curveball working throughout the windy day.

That pitch set up his fastball, which he was adept at spotting on the outside corner against right-handed hitters.

“Will did a great job. He battled. Pitched against a really good baseball team,” Coach Bednar said. “Had good command of all three pitches. I couldn't be more proud of him as a player and as my son.”

Mars (14-6) provided Will Bednar to that 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against West Allegheny left-hander Michael Crawford.

Spencer Croskey singled and Jack Anderson walked. Frank Craska followed a batter later with a double barely fair down the left-field line to plate both Croskey and courtesy runner Max Pasquinelli for an early lead.

An early lead that stood up.

“I just told the kids (Mars) is in the semifinals for a good reason,” said West Allegheny coach Bryan Cornell. “They're a very good baseball team and we got beat by the better team today. End of story.”

West Allegheny (19-2) pushed across a run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Austin Hendrick led off the inning with a triple and scored on a wild pitch.

That was all Will Bednar gave the four-time WPIAL champion Indians.

Mars responded by tacking on a run in the top of the fifth inning. Wetherholt tripled with two outs and then scored on an infield single by Croskey.

The Planets added another insurance run in the top of the seventh against West Allegheny relief pitcher Justin Usenicnik on a RBI single by Anderson that scored Wetherholt.

That was more than enough for Mars.

Will Bednar, a 6-foot-1 right-hander, was chased from the game with one out in the seventh because of the pitch-count rule.

Dylan Rotz got the final two outs for the save.

Mars, which received a first-round bye, has given up just one run in two games of the WPIAL tournament.

Frank Craska tossed a shutout in a 2-0 win Monday over Moon.

“Our pitching has been outstanding all year and it's just carried through the playoffs,” Coach Bednar said. “With Frankie's performance and then Will's and Dylan Rotz, too, it's nice.”

Will Bednar has some bragging rights now on older brother David, who is in single-A in the San Diego Padres organization — he pitched his team to a WPIAL final.

And he did it with a curveball that just might be better than his brother's.

“Maybe,” Will Bednar said, smiling.

“It's surreal,” he added about pitching his team into the final.

To his father and his teammates, the win meant a great deal as well.

“We went on a streak where we lost a series of first-round playoff games and then last year we got to the semifinals,” Coach Bednar said. “This was a huge win for our program to get over the hump.”

Mars 200 010 1 — 4 6 3

West Allegheny 000 100 0 — 1 4 0

W: Will Bednar 6.1IP (9K, 1BB). L: Michael Crawford 6.1IP (4K, 3BB). SV: Dylan Rotz 0.2IP (1K, 0BB)

Mars (14-6): Brandon Wetherholt 3B 2-R, Spencer Croskey 2-1B RBI, Jack Anderson 2-1B RBI, Frank Craska 2B 2-RBI

West Allegheny (19-2): Austin Hendrick 3B, Devin Donaldson 1B, Chasen Claus 1B, Steve Twardy 1B

TBD: Mars vs. Latrobe in WPIAL 5A championship game at Washington Wild Things Park, time TBD