Thursday was another rather typical day at the ballyard for Mesa High's baseball team -- best described as wacky.

Fall behind 4-0 in the top of the first against visiting Mountain Pointe. Trail 6-2 heading to the bottom of the second. Lead 8-6 after two. Blow a 9-6 lead in the top of the fourth. Go back in front 11-9 after four. Fall back again, 12-11, in the top of the sixth. Tie the game at 12 in the bottom of the sixth. Finish in a 12-12 tie after three grueling hours when the game is called due to darkness.

This is Mesa High's season. It's what has defined  the Jackrabbits in 2012. As many ups as downs.

"A lot of our games have been like this," Mesa coach Mike Masciangelo said. "We brought our game to (Mountain Pointe) today. We're used to these kind of games. We've had some great learning experiences, and I think despite how the games have gone sometimes, it's helped our confidence. We don't get down if we get behind early or by a lot."

Thursday's games allowed fans in attendance to consume these numbers -- a combined 28 hits, 15 walks (11 issued by Mountain Pointe), eight errors and a handful of mental miscues on both sides along with 24 runs.

Fortunately for Mesa, the Jackrabbits only had to play two games this week. Their other outing was a doozy with Mesa edging Highland on Tuesday, 10-9.  Mesa led 5-0 after one inning and 6-0 after 3 1/2 innings. Highland rolled out nine runs in the fourth. Mesa eventually won the game with a  four-run rally in the sixth.

Brandon Buck's Mountain Pointe squad endured an interesting week as well, going 1-1-1. The Pride followed up a 9-2 trouncing of Brophy on Friday (March 30) with an 8-7  loss to Marcos de Niza on Tuesday. Four errors late helped erase a 5-0 Mountain Pointe lead and played a huge part in the Marcos de Niza comeback. On Wednesday, Mountain Pointe came back to edge one of the hotter teams until this week -- Corona del Sol -- 3-2. Corona brought a 7-2 power-point record to this week and exited said week at 7-5 with losses to Hamilton, Mountain Pointe and Mesquite.

The beginning of  the weird and wacky for Mesa can be traced to early March. Mesa took a 9-2 lead over Westwood to the bottom of the seventh inning on March 2 only to cough up the lead and settle for a 9-9 deadlock (darkness ended that game, too.)  Mesa finished that game the next week, finally winning, 10-9, in eight innings. That same day a regularly-scheduled game between the teams was played. It was won by Westwood, 1-0.

Mesa has learned that anything and everything can crop up -- no matter the caliber opponent you face. Masciangelo reminded his team of it one more time in as they were coming to bat in the bottom of the first.

"I told our guys after (Mtn. Pointe) scored four in the first that with the wind blowing like it is, it's going to be a weird day," Masciangelo said. "With the games we've been in, they knew that was true."

Mesa brought a 12-8 overall record to Thursday's Division I power-point game.  Both teams are in the thick of the chase for the 24 playoff spots among 59 schools competing. Mesa is 7-3-1 in power-point games after a full moon lit Mesa's baseball field shortly after 7 p.m.  Mountain Pointe left f the same field for its bus with a  6-4-1 mark in power-point games.

The teams will discuss in the next few days when to play out the tie. It might be prior to their April 19 contest at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. The finish of that game and the game already scheduled between them on April 19 will be precious to both down the stretch as they strive for the postseason -- Mountain Pointe to get the chance to defend its state title and Mesa to advance to postseason for the first time since 2008.