WASHINGTON, Pa. — When Mars High School baseball coach Andy Bednar thought about his seniors, tears formed in his eyes and his jaw locked.

He looked away, trying to gather his thoughts.

“I've been coaching these guys since, oh boy, since they were 8 years old,” Bednar said.

Tuesday on a muggy afternoon at Washington & Jefferson College, he coached them for the last time.

The Planets dug themselves an early 4-0 hole against Franklin Regional and could never crawl out of it in a 4-1 loss to the Panthers in the WPIAL 5A consolation game.

Franklin Regional (18-2) moves on to the PIAA playoffs. Mars (12-10) is eliminated.

“Sometimes things don't go the way you script them,” Bednar said.

But as Bednar says goodbye to his 10 seniors, including his son, Will Bednar, he can't help but reflect on what they accomplished: A trip to the WPIAL final last year, two trips in the semifinals and three state playoff games.

“You can't take that away from them,” Bednar said.

But Franklin Regional took a chance at another PIAA appearance away from Mars thanks to timely hitting and a few costly Planet miscues.

The Panthers scored in the bottom on the first inning on a strikeout and wild pitch after Michael Klingensmith singled and advanced to third on a two-base error.

Franklin Regional tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the third — another run scoring on a wild pitch.

Joe Craska got the hard-luck loss for Mars. He gave up four runs — three earned — in four-plus innings. He struck out two, but walked two.

“As always, Joey gave us an incredible effort out there again,” Bednar said. “But when you give a team like Franklin Regional extra outs like that, it's hard to recover.

“(Craska) did what we thought he would do,” Bednar added. “He went out there and battled. He kept us in the game. This is one of the best hitting teams we've seen all year and we held them to (six) hits.”

Franklin Regional got its own stellar outing from its starter, Andrew Muraco.

The sophomore right-hander, who has a funky delivery at times, went 5 2/3 strong innings and allowed just a RBI single to JJ Wetherholt.

“Andrew pitches bigger than a sophomore,” said Franklin Regional coach Robert Saddler. “He wants the ball and when he takes the ball, he gets it done.”

Mars reached the WPIAL semifinal and a game away from making the state playoffs again despite missing its ace, Will Bednar, who pitched only a handful of innings all season.

But other arms stepped up to lead the Planets.

“You can't say enough about Craska and (Shane) Fox and Alex Heavner,” Bednar said. “If you would have told me we'd be able to go this far without Will, I'd have been shocked.

“We have a really good nucleus coming back. I think we can do more damage next year.”

Mars 000 010 0 — 1 6 1

Franklin Reg. 103 000 x — 4 6 1

W:Andrew Muraco 5.2IP (3K, 3BB). L: Joe Craska 4IP (2K, 2BB). SV: Michael Klingensmith 1.1IP (1K, 1W)

Mars (12-10): Tyler Kowalkowski 1B, Joe Craska 1B, JJ Wetherholt 1B RBI, Rowan Fletcher 2-1B, Matt Fuller 1B

Franklin Regional (18-2): Michael Klingensmith 1B, Tommy Kegerreis 2B, Louie Kegerreis 2B, Bryce Haerper 1B, Thomas Nicely RBI, Matt Fitzmaurice 2-1B