With less than three weeks left in the Division I baseball season -- that's about 6 or 7 games on average -- the number to shoot for to qualify for state is 12. Twelve wins.

This week started in earnest  Tuesday for a little more than a dozen teams in the thick of the 24-team chase for postseason, which begins on April 28. Lots more games Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Recording wins on Tuesday were Mountain Pointe (beat Casa Grande, 9-7), Chaparral (beat Millennium, 5-3), Cibola (beat Kofa, 13-3), Gilbert (beat Corona del Sol, 13-12), Desert Mountain (beat Deer Valley, 7-3), Red Mountain (beat Skyline, 10-0), Horizon (beat North Canyon, 7-0) and Brophy (beat Hamilton, 9-8).

Defending big-school champ Mountain Pointe improved to 7-4 in power-point games with its win. Hamilton, the  big-school runner-up last year and always in the thick of the chase, is a precarious 7-5. Heading to games on Wednesday there are 23 teams with at least eight wins. Another eight have seven wins.

With most schools playing 18 power-point games it's quite likely 12 wins will be needed to qualify -- maybe a few can squeak by with 11. That also means six or seven losses is the max.

Teams with five losses or more to this point and familiar to playoff baseball are Hamilton, Horizon (6-5), Red Mountain (8-5), Corona del Sol (7-6) and Highland (7-5). They have little room for error the rest of the way.

The way the season has gone its been difficult for most teams to rattle off more than three or four wins in a row, especially those competing in the East Valley. So buckle up for the stretch drive. It's going to be a wild ride.