MARS — Blake Friday's job is to start rallies for the Mars baseball team.

Nobody does it better.

“He's probably the best leadoff hitter this program's ever seen,” Planets coach Brian Hobaugh said.

Friday did one better than start a rally in the bottom of the seventh inning against section rival Indiana Saturday at Marburger Field.

One swing. Game over.

Friday deposited a first-pitch fastball over the right field fence to lead off the frame and give the Planets a come-from-behind 8-7 victory.

“All I wanted to do was get on base,” Friday said of the at-bat. “It was a fastball, inner-third, belt-high.”

The home run was Friday's first of the season and enabled Mars to stay a half-game behind Hampton in the Section 4-AAA race. Both teams have one loss and have split with each other.

“If we win it, we're co-section champs, at least,” Friday said. “That's all I know.”

Friday is hitting approximately .420, has an on-base percentage around .500 and has set a single-season school stolen base record with 14. He swiped three bases Saturday.

“Blake is exactly what you want in a leadoff guy,” Hobaugh said. “He's an excellent hitter with good speed who knows the strike zone.”

Mars rallied from deficits of 3-1 and 7-4 to win Saturday.

“It felt like this was two or three different games in one,” Hobaugh said.

The Planets trailed 3-1 before scoring three times in the fifth inning. Held to one hit over the first four frames, Mars got rolling when Nick Comport homered to right leading off the fifth. Starting pitcher Tyler Dean hit a two-run double with the bases loaded to put his team in front.

Mars stranded 11 runners in the game, seven in scoring position. The Planets left at least one runner in scoring position in each of the first six innings.

“It looked like that was going to come back to haunt us. It almost did,” Hobaugh said.

Dean was chased in the top of the sixth as Indiana rallied for four runs and a 7-4 lead. Consecutive two-out doubles by Anthony Piccolini and P..J. Kuta capped the rally.

Plagued by walks all day, Indiana surrendered three runs in the bottom of the inning as Mars tied the game. A balk, sacrifice fly and bases-loaded walk plated the runs.

Three walks and a hit batsman contributed to the frame. Indiana pitchers Scott Ellis and Steve Thomas combined to walk 11.

“Even with that, if we execute playing small-ball, we win this game,” Indiana coach Mark Morrow said. “We failed to catch a couple of foul pop-ups that came back to burn us.

“Then we can't get a bunt down in that last inning.”

Ellis singled and Jay Roberto was hit by a pitch to start the Indiana seventh. Dave Bednar struck out the next three hitters to escape any damage after a couple of foul-ball bunts.

Friday then made short work of the bottom of the seventh.

“We're still in the playoff hunt (tied for third with Kittanning),” Morrow said. “But we've lost four one-run games now. We need to get on the other side of that.”

Mars still has a chance to get on the other side of Hampton in the section standings. The Planets are in the middle of a stretch of four section games in five days.

“The way we battled today shows how badly these kids want that section title,” Hobaugh said.

Indiana 200 104 0 — 7 9 1Mars 001 033 1 — 8 7 1No outs when winning run scoredW: Dave Bednar 1IP (3K, 0BB).

L: Steve Thomas 2IP (2K, 5BB).

Indiana (6-9, 5-6): Anthony Piccolini 2B 1B 2-R, P.J. Kuta 2B 2-RBI, Steve Thomas 3B RBI, Scott Ellis 1B RBI, Jay Roberto 3B, Derek Shields 1B, Greg Zoka 1B RBI, Nick Holuta 1B 2-RBI

Mars (11-1, 10-1): Blake Friday HR 1B 3-SB 2-R, Nick Comport HR, Ryan Wotus 2B 1B 2-R, Matt Eperesi 2B 2-R, Tyler Dean 2B 2-RBI, Kevin Giallonardo RBI

Today: Highlands at Mars