By Ryan Deal

605 Sports

It was Four Corners’ first Class B state tourney win since 2019, a 13-11 win over Madison. In 2019, Four Corners also outlasted Madison in another back-and-forth contest, scoring nine runs in the fifth. 

“It was the same type of deal and actually I thought of the Madison game during the game,” said Hand, who finished with three hits and four RBI. “Because I've seen it before.” 

Against Crofton, the teams went scoreless through the first two innings. But it got wild in the third inning. Four Corners plated eight runs on nine hits for an 8-0 lead. 

But Crofton responded with a 10-run bottom half, highlighted by a James Kaiser grand slam over the 340-foot left field fence. 

Garrett Stout hit a two-run triple in the fifth inning, putting Four Corners ahead 11-10. 

In the ninth inning, Hand smacked a two-run double into right field and gave Four Corners a pair of insurance runs. 

“He left a curveball up in the zone and I was just able to put a good swing on it and it was big at the time,” Hand said. “It let us relax and take a deep breath in the bottom half of the ninth.”

The three-run cushion was enough to lift Four Corners into the second round, where it will face Garretson or Corsica at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. 

“It’s a big deal because we have some guys that are kind of at the end of the line and a good group of young kids, too,” Hand added about the win. “We don’t have much in between. So I think it was good for the young kids too of course to get a win. It will help us going forward in the future years.” 

For Four Corners, Jack Van Camp finished with two hits and three RBI. Noah Hainy and Justin Lester each had two hits and an RBI. River Iverson added three hits. Hainy earned the win, striking out eight batters and allowing six hits, four earned runs through 6.1 innings. 

For Crofton, Devin Hegge had two hits and an RBI.