Mars players stand on the third base line waiting for news following the second stoppage due to outfield lighting outage.

WEXFORD — To be continued.

Two outages involving the left field lights at North Allegheny High School's baseball field Friday night forced suspension of the Mars-Franklin Regional WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal with the score tied 5-5.

Play will resume at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fox Chapel with the Planets (13-6) batting on the top of the fifth with two outs and the bases empty.

Both teams will have to change pitchers due to pitch count.

“This may help us, actually,” Mars coach Jason Thompson said. “We had a plan in place pitching-wise, anyway.

“Teddy Ruffner was going to pitch some. Now he won't have to come out from behind the plate in the middle of the game.”

Ruffner is the Planets' starting catcher.

Top-seeded Franklin Regional (16-1) will have to go to another arm as well. Ace pitcher Brian Pirone is still ineligible to pitch due to insufficient rest.

“I have confidence in all of our pitchers,” Panthers coach Bobby Saddler said. “This is a little crazy, but things happen. Kids are resilient. Everyone will be ready to go.”

Mars pitcher Alex Heavner struck out 10 and walked six in four innings, but threw 104 pitches. Franklin Regional's Luke Trelour fanned eight and walked six.

After Trelour walked Ruffner to start the game and fell behind JJ Wetherholt, 3-1, he complained about the soft landing area on the mound. Play was delayed as the grounds crew fixed the problem.

With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, the left field lights when dark. Play was halted for 20 minutes and the lights returned. Heaver lofted a fly ball to left in the fifth inning. With the ball in the air, the lights went out again.

The ball was caught for the second out with the game suspended at that point.

The Planets trailed 5-0 after two innings, giving up four runs in the first frame.

John Fratto delivered a two-run single in the third, followed by Caden Schmitt's RBI single.

Wetherholt tripled home Ruffner in the fourth, then scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

“We just needed a big hit to get it going,” Thompson said. “Our kids always get going the second time through the order.

“We will be back (Saturday) to see if we can't get this thing done.”