The field was wet, as was the ball, and gripping and throwing were no easy tasks.

But after the rainiest regular season in recent memory, the players knew what to do when the postseason forecast called for rain.

Skyline overcame some early errors and a bad weather forecast and put together a third-inning rally in an 8-1 win Tuesday afternoon in a pre-district game at Huron High School.

More Coverage: Boxscore | District Bracket

“It was a sloppy game, we just made plays when we needed to,” Skyline pitcher Jack Clark said. “We were able to put the ball in play in key positions and we’ve got some kids that are pretty fast and can force the issue out there and make things interesting.”

Skyline scored six of its eight runs runs in the third inning, thanks to five singles, a walk and an error. The Eagles utilized the running game all day to manufacture runs and frustrate the Pioneer defense.

“I just kept telling the boys put the ball in play, put the ball in play, make something happen,” Skyline coach Frank Garcia said. “These are high schoolers and they get nervous and they make mistakes. Luckily we put the balls in play and we got some key hits that scored some runs. We got a big lead and Jack shut the door after that.”

Clark finished with just one earned run on four hits with three strikeouts. After his team gave him a seven-run lead to work with in the third, the senior pitched to contact the rest of the way and faced the minimum over the final four innings of the game.

“For the most part, he kept them off balance, he made them put the ball in play,” Garcia said. “We made a few errors but made the key plays, and kept the runs to a minimum.”

Joel Frison, Patrick Lewis and Jacob Graff had two hits apiece to lead the Skyline offense. Lewis and Graff each had a pair of RBIs.

For Pioneer, having one poor inning ruin the afternoon was a familiar feeling in a 6-25 season. The Pioneers gave up only three hits outside of the five in the third inning. Tom Hadlock came on in relief and gave up only one hit in the final four innings.

“It’s that one inning that’s been costing us,” Pioneer coach Jerry Holley said. “We play six good innings of baseball and then we have one where we kick it around a little bit and that’s been kind of the season.”

Eric Shultz had a pair of hits for Pioneer and Hadlock drove in the team’s only run.

Skyline was able to find offense with a lineup different than its regular one. Sophomore Brody Stevens missed the game after being ejected from the previous one, and third baseman Liam Aronoff was out after breaking a bone in his hand last week.

But the Eagles got some key contributions from the bottom part of their lineup, including an RBI double from third baseman Ben Sadis.

Skyline now advances to play Pinckney in a district semifinal game Saturday, where Garcia said he expects to run into strong pitching from the Pirates.

“It’ll take a team effort to score runs on them,” Garcia said.

Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.