Pointer Down vs Pointer Up conflict

Hello, I have a state machine set up, where on pointer down (mouse is held down) an animation using solos and SVG's gets triggered and plays forwards while the mouse is held down, then when released it plays the animation backwards/reverse. The problem is that if you just click on it once, it triggers the forward animation but almost instantly goes to the reverse animation. If i set the forward animation to Exit Time 100%, it will not go to the backwards animation right away, but then it becomes a one click interaction, instead of the press down and hold interaction that i am trying to achieve. Not sure if i need to use a blend state or some additional listeners/triggers? Any help would be appreciated.

Running ver 0.8.2618, MAC OS, Chrom browser.