ADAMS TWP — In Wednesday's Section 5-AAA baseball game against Freeport, Mars' pitchers made a habit of getting into jams.

And getting out of them.

The last threat posed by the Yellowjackets came in the top of the seventh when reliever Ty Reginelli allowed back-to-back singles to Josh Beale and Nathan Pastorek.

Ryan Eshenbaugh grounded out, advancing the baserunners to second and third. But that's where they remained as Reginelli struck out Derek Jones and induced Clay Westendorf to ground out to preserve the Planets' 5-3 win, which clinched for the team a WPIAL Class AAA playoff berth.

Reginelli struck out the side in the sixth before surviving the seventh to earn the save behind starter and winning pitcher David Anderson.

“Ty's been our closer this season, but it had been a while since he pitched,” said Mars coach Andy Bednar. “I'm glad he worked the sixth because that got him going. If he's throwing strikes, he can shut down games for us.”

Anderson pulled off his own Houdini act not once but twice early in the game, leaving the bases loaded in the first and second inning.

In the first frame, he struck out Jones for the final out. Then in the second, after Freeport scored the game's first run on a single from Jesse Tomkiewicz, Anderson faced the bases loaded with no outs.

Strikeouts of Matt Van Tine and Josh Beale were followed by Pastorek's groundout.

Four of Anderson's six strikeouts came in the rocky first two innings and helped him weather the storm.

“Several pitches were working for me,” he said. “I got two of the strikeouts with my fastball, two with my curveball and one with a slider. It's not the best idea to get in jams like that, but when you are able to get out of them, you have to love that as a pitcher. It gave me confidence.”

Getting hits wasn't the problem for Freeport as the Yellowjackets collected 12 of them to just six for the Planets.

“But we didn't get the key hits,” said Freeport coach Chris Graczyk. “To come out of those first two innings with just one run, that really hurt us.”

Mars' half of the second inning proved decisive. The Planets plated four runs — beginning with Ryan Leshinsky's leadoff home run — off of Freeport starter Dennis Wuysick. Later in the frame, Zarek Simkovich scored on a throwing error, Cam Marshall laced an RBI-double and Anderson had an RBI-single for a 4-1 lead.

After Mars (9-6, 7-3) added a run in the third inning, the Yellowjackets battled back with single tallies in the next two frames, including Jones' home run in the fifth. But Anderson was able to exit the inning with the lead and turned the game over to Reginelli.

“David has worked out of a lot of jams for us this year,” said Bednar. “His pitch-count was up around 90 after five and that's why we brought in Ty.”

Zack Stokes worked three straight scoreless innings of relief for Freeport (4-7, 3-6).

Westendorf had three singles for the Yellowjackets.

Freeport 010 110 0 — 3 12 2

Mars 041 000 x — 5 6 1

W: David Anderson 5 IP (6K, 1BB). L: Dennis Wuysick 3 IP (3K, 3BB). S: Ty Reginelli 2 IP (4K, 0BB).

Freeport (4-7, 3-6): James Flemm 1B, Matt Van Tine 1B, Josh Beale 1B RBI, Nathan Pastorek 2-1B, Derek Jones HR, Clay Westendorf 3-1B R, Nevin DeCroo 1B, Jesse Tomkiewicz 2-1B RBI, Justin Brestensky R

Mars (9-6, 7-3): David Anderson 2-1B RBI, Ty Reginelli 2B, Ryan Leshinsky HR 2R, Zarek Simkovich R, Jake Swiatek 1B RBI, Cam Marshall 2B R RBI, Terren Shannan R

Today: Hampton at Freeport

Friday: Mars at Highlands