Another year of 6A play-in baseball games and another year of lower seeds holding their own.

For the third year in a row at least four lower seeds claimed play-in triumphs to advance to the 6A state tournament that opens with first- round games at varous times and sites on Saturday.

One of the low seeds -- #22 Skyline - avenged a pair of regular-season losses to East Valley Region rival and #11 Mesa High with a well-played 4-1 decision at HoHoKam Stadium.Mesa finished 14-9 with its best record since 2000. Skyline moves on with an 11-15 mark.

Seven of eight play-in games were completed Wednesday with Skyline, #19 Mountain Ridge, #18 San Luis and #17 Desert Vista knocking off higher seeds. The game still undecided is #21 Queen Creek vs. #12 Chaparral. That game ended in a 4-4 tie after eight innings due to darkness. It will be picked up at that point Thursday with a tentative start time of noon.

Skyline is the lowest seed to advance to the tournament so the Coyotes will draw whoever the No. 1 seed is. Their matchup will be revealed along with the others in 6A-4A baseball and 6A-4A softball Thursday afternoon on AIA's bracket-release show which will take place at Mesa Mountain View High School. The bracket show will be streamed live on AzPreps365.com and scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Skyline knows what it is to be an underdog in postseason. The Coyotes weren't a low seed for their play-in game in 2018 (#13 last year) and won their play-in game. They eventually advanced to the state semis before bowing out to eventual champ Sandra Day O'Connor.

On Wednesday night the Skyline pitching combination of Brandon Melendez and Eric Olson, combined with rock-solid defense, told the tale.

"This game went according to script," Skyline coach Pat Herrera said. "We had a game earlier against Tolleson. Brandon started and threw four no-hit innings. He had walked a few and started the fifth with a walk. We brought on Eric and he finished three with three strong innings. We go up 3-1 in the fifth and we got what we wanted from Kody. Eric came in and faced 8-9-1 (7-8-9-1) and got comfortable. He finished great.

"Mesa's got a good club. They had a great season."

Mesa led 1-0  through three innings thanks to an RBI single in the second by Angel Reynoso. Skyline tied it in the top of the fourth using a walk, hit by pitch and two singles - the last for an RBI by Payton Johnson.

Both teams finished with only five hits, but it was extra base runners via walks hit by pitch and two Mesa errors that stung  the Jackrabbits.

Skyline went ahead to stay 3-1 in the fifth. Catcher Bo Brooks reached on an error. AJ Herrera doubled with one out putting runners at second and third. That ended the evening for Mesa starter Zach Quintana and Hunter West came on in relief.

West hit Olson with a pitch and a Kade York walk plated the go-ahead run. Bruce Claxton made it 3-1 with a sacrifice fly.

Olson got in a little scrape in the seventh as Mesa used a walk and double to bring the tying run to the plate with two outs. Olson induced a pop out to second on a nice battle between him and the Jackrabbits' Phillip Bourdon for the final out.

"We hit some balls hard and they caught them all," Mesa coach Ray Figueroa said. "They played great defense. The big park hurt us a little, but the kids enjoy playing here. Their two pitchers did what they wanted to."