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Kearns • No one really expected that Cottonwood's Christopher Rowan would be able to go the other way.

Maybe not even Rowan himself when he stepped to the plate in the eighth inning of Monday's Class 5A state baseball quarterfinal game.

Certainly not the American Fork outfield, which shifted to the left as right field remained wide open. After all, the Cavemen right fielder snagged a Rowan fly out in dead center three innings earlier.

But Rowan can and did go opposite-field, sending a ball to the open right corner at Kearns High's Gates Field. His stand-up triple eventually turned into the winning run on a bases-loaded walk as Cottonwood remained undefeated in the tourney with a 2-1 win over American Fork in eight innings.

"That's probably my second ball ever hit there," Rowan said in reference to his high school career. "I normally don't do that because it's not my approach. But you saw the shift on me. I was trying to go right the whole time."

Cottonwood coach Jason Crawford said: "Every scrimmage, I put him in that exact same situation just to see if he could do it. He finally came through. It was awesome. You could see that he was trying to go that way, with all his foul-offs. Hats off to him for sticking with it."

Rowan, the Colts' catcher, also had the best seat in the house for a sterling pitching performance by teammate Hayden Rosenkrantz.

Rosenkrantz gave up his only run in the first inning when the Cavemen executed a perfect hit-and-run and eventually tallied its score on a groundout.

Rosenkrantz became more difficult to reach for the American Fork (19-10) batters after that.

Rosenkrantz recorded 1-2-3 frames six times and showed no signs of tiring as the game went into extra innings.

"I would have been mad," Rosenkrantz said about the possibility of exiting the game after seven innings. "It was my game to take."

"Hayden did an awesome job, competed his tail off," Crawford said.

Cottonwood (20-8) tied the contest in the sixth when Hunter Heugly started the frame with a ground-rule double on a ball driven to deep center. He advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a ground out by Jason Luke.

Rowan slammed his triple with one out in the eighth. American Fork then opted to intentionally walk both Heugly and Luke to load the bases. Caleb Manuel then battled reliever Boone Abbott and drew a walk to send home Rowan.

"We'll take it," Crawford said. "Caleb Manuel has been on fire for us. He's had a lot of great at-bats." —

Storylines

R Cottonwood pitcher Hayden Rosenkrantz works all eight innings, striking out five and allowing only three hits.

• Colts senior Christopher Rowan clubs an opposite-field triple in the eighth with one out and scores three batters later.

• American Fork pitcher Trell Morse works 61⁄3 innings, allowing only one run.