It struck midnight for Cinderella Independence (14-23) at the state baseball tournament. Knoxville scored four runs in the fourth inning to come from behind and post a 5-3 win in this Class 3A quarterfinal at Principal Park in Des Moines.

Knoxville improves to 25-9. Indee finished 14-24.

The Mustangs went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning. A two-out triple off the wall in left-center by cleanup hitter Mike Jacks scored a run in the bottom of the first for Knoxville.

The drive would have been out of most high school ballparks. So would have an ensuing fly ball to the warning track in dead center off the bat of Lance Daugherty.

Indee went ahead in the second thanks to a throwing error on the Knoxville third baseman and a misplayed line drive to left field that went to the fence for a two-base, run-scoring error. Austin Pink also has a bloop single in the inning and Jeff Burns an RBI groundout.

Adam Thiel had a double off the left-field wall leading off the Knoxville second but stayed there. Keaton Hosch led off the Indee third with a hard double off the left-field wall and scored on an ensuing single down the first-base line by Sam Rasmussen.

Knoxville rallied in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead.

Daugherty reached with one out on a bloop double to “the triangle” in left-center and scored on Adam Thiel’s ensuing single to center. Thiel then scored on a ringing double to the right-center gap by Kellen Glover. Another double by Jacob Cunningham put the Panthers ahead, 4-3. Cunningham scored on a two-out bloop single over shortstop by Justin Katich.

Indee had a good chance to get back into it in the top of the fifth. Adam Flaucher singled with one out and went to second on a Hosch single to center. A grounder to the mound moved the runners up, then Blaize Cabell (hitting a team-best .480) was intentionally walked. But Nick Zieser grounded to the mound to end the threat.

Pink (6-5, 2.33 ERA) is on the mound for Indee, Eric Jones (9-2, 1.40 ERA) for Knoxville.