Between them, they have played 15 games already this spring — a number that is usually unheard of by the first week of April.

Next week, everything will be essentially reset to zero.

That's because the section slate begins in earnest Monday. And the clash between the Planets and Rams Thursday afternoon at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park showed both teams are more than ready for the “real games” to start.

Pine-Richland took advantage of several Mars miscues early to take a 5-1 lead after two innings and cruised to an 8-3 win.

“That was three games in three days — it was good to get some work in going into section play next week,” said Mars coach Andy Bednar. “That's a lot games. Our guys have a lot of at-bats going into the section season.

“We're disappointed with the way we played,” Bednar added. “We had a really good game (Wednesday) against North Allegheny. We just came out a little flat today.”

Bednar sent senior Shinno Ikeda to the hill to face Pine-Richland and the right-hander pitched well for the most part.

He gave up two unearned runs in the first inning and two more unearned runs in the second.

Ikeda went four innings, giving up just the one earned run.

“I thought Shinno pitched really well,” Bednar said. “When you give good teams like Pine-Richland extra outs in an inning, it's hard to recover from that. The amazing thing was we were still in the game.”

Mars clawed back to 5-3 in the bottom of the third. The Planets loaded the bases with no one out, but grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to plate a run. Shane Fox then lined a sharp RBI single.

Mars (5-2) had other chances to dent the lead against Pine-Richland left-hander Alec Swartout and reliever Grant Voytovich, but failed to capitalize.

“We had some opportunities with two outs to get some big hits, but we didn't come through,” Bednar said.

Each team substituted religiously in the late innings.

The plan for Pine-Richland coach Kurt Wolfe was to limit Swartout's innings. But with him cruising, Wolfe kept him in the game for six strong innings.

Swartout struck out seven and walked just one.

“He actually got stronger as the game went on, which was nice,” Wolfe said. “We were going to keep him at a certain pitch count, but we let him go a little bit longer because he looked so much stronger as he went along. He settled down and pitched well and gave us an opportunity to tack some runs on and get some separation.

“It's nice to go into section play with a win,” Wolfe added.

Josh Scherer and Chase Vrabela each reached base on all four of their plate appearances. Scherer went 3-for-3 with a walk and Vrabela was 2-for-2 with a triple and two walks.

Mitchell Schultz, Rowan Fletcher and J.J. Wetherhold each had a multi-hit game for Mars. Schultz doubled and also made two stellar catches in left field.

“He had a great game defensively. He really did,” Bednar said. “And he's only a sophomore, too.”

Wetherholt, a left-handed hitter and another sophomore, singled against the Pine-Richland infield shift in his final at-bat.

Wetherholt has had a strong spring so far.

“It's hard to believe he's only a 10th-grader,” Bednar said. “He's done really well this year and went the other way in that last at-bat and hit the six-hole. Love to see that.”

Pine-Richland 230 120 0 — 8 10 2

Mars 102 000 0 — 3 10 3

W: Alec Swartout 6IP (7K, 1BB). L: Shinno Ikeda 4IP (1K, 2BB).

Pine-Richland (5-3): Matt Wood 1B 2B RBI, Josh Scherer 3-1B RBI, Jake Maley 2B 1B RBI, Chase Vrabela 3B 2B RBI, Josh Johnson 2B

Mars (5-2): Rowen Fletcher 2-1B, Matt Fuller 1B, J.J. Wetherholt 2-1B, Shane Fox 2-1B RBI, Mitchell Schultz 1B 2B, Brad Astbury 1B

Monday: North Hills at Mars