Back-to-back 'Nuch champs 4C Prime of New Mexico seek to join elite company

A team from the Four Corners area of New Mexico is shooting to make history this week.

4C Prime, made up of high school players from Albuquerque, Hobbs, the Four Corners area of New Mexico, and even Denver players, is prepared to make another run in the 42nd annual Tony Andenucio Memorial Baseball Tournament at Pueblo's Runyon Sports Complex.

Called 4-Corners previously, the squad is the tournament's two-time defending champion, having won the title last year and in 2019. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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4-Corners defeated the Colorado Recruits 3-2 in eight innings last season and defeated Burkburnett (Texas) 8-5 for the 2019 championship.

Getting a third title in a row would put 4C Prime in rare company. Only two other teams in 'Nuch history have won three in a row.

Cherry Creek, which has won the most tournaments (9), pulled off the feat with titles in 1999, 2000, and 2001. And Elk City (Woodward, Okla.) did it twice (2006-2008), (2010-12) when it won six crowns in seven years.

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4C Prime opened the tournament Thursday with a come-from-behind, 7-4 win over Gene Taylor's of Grand Junction. Then, 4C Prime blanked powerful Cherry Creek 8-0 to finish 2-0 after Day 1.

It was the team's first game playing together, and only 10 players were at the park on Thursday.

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Two of the three players returning from last season were instrumental in the team's four-run seventh-inning rally that erased a 4-3 deficit.

Max McGaha started on the mound for the New Mexico club and gave up four runs through four innings. Fellow left-hander Bryant Elliot then tossed three shutout innings and picked up the mound victory.

Both players feel like their team has a good chance at pulling off a three-peat.

"I don't feel any pressure, I'm just having fun," said McGaha, who will be playing at New Mexico Junior College this fall. "It's a grind but I'm just enjoying it this year. It's four days of grinding. You can't let anything mess up your emotions throughout the day because you have to wake up and do it again.

"We're banking on our sticks. We need to throw strikes and outhit our opponents."

Elliot, who played at Piedra Vista High School, and played at Bard College in New York this past season, has played with 4C Prime head coach Mike McGaha since he was 9.

"Last year was a grind. We had a couple of really good players," Elliot said. "I haven't even met a lot of the guys on our team this year.

"I was just doing my job, throwing strikes and these guys had my back.".

Coach McGaha said his expectation is that his team will play hard.

"4-Corners has been coming to the 'Nuch on purpose," he said. "We want to come here and do well. In 2018 we were 3-3 and ended up winning the Mountain West Region and winning a couple of games in the Connie Mack World Series, which tells you how tough this tournament is.

"This tournament is a target for us. We have to get some of the lumps and bumps out because we haven't played together. You could tell, it was a little rough."

McGaha admitted he didn't know what to expect when his team drove up to the facility Thursday morning.

"We gave the uniforms out right there in the parking lot under the cover at 10 (a.m.), hit at 10:30, and played at 11:30. The nucleus, the 18-year-olds that played in the championship game last year, have played for me for multiple years. When you have that you can ride that and get the new guys acclimated.

"There's a method involved. If you don't have a method you are going to have a hard time because you are going to have a lot of situations you have to make decisions.

"The year we won it in 2019, I think we had only 12 players. We have three guys at the area code tryout today and we have a pitcher coming Friday night."

Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: 4C Prime hoping for another run at 'Nuch title as two-time champions