ESCANABA — The fourth inning made a world of difference for the Escanaba Major Boys’ Little League All-Stars 11-12 year old baseball here Monday night as they defeated Kingsford, 7-1, in the District 10 championship baseball game.

Esky trailed 1-0 after three innings before doing all its scoring in the fourth.

Esky will now carry the District 10 championship banner to the state tournament at Grosse Pointe where it begins play Saturday at 5:15 p.m. Eastern.

McKaiden Hughes, who got a pair of singles in the fourth, finished 3-for-3.

“As soon as they changed their pitcher, we started hitting off him,” he said. “I thought we might lose after they scored the first run. Mentally, it was a little hard when we were trailing. Once we got all those runs, we knew we were going to win it. Our confidence came back.”

Esky also won Monday’s opener 1-0 to force the second game.

“McKaiden had a heck of a day,” Esky manager Dan Garcia said. “He was bringing it. We had all kinds of MVPs today. We were hitting the ball right at people for a very long time. Then, the ball finally started hitting the grass. They hadn’t given up a run until today. We knew their pitching was good.”

Esky tied the nightcap on Cale Schroeder’s single to right field and took the lead on Nick Martinson’s single to right.

A two-run single by Lincoln Bradfield gave Esky a 4-1 cushion. Brody Ison’s single to right made it 5-1, and Willie Derkos added a two-run single to center.

Brock Flaminio scored Kingsford’s lone run on Jonah Doenier’s single to right in the first.

“They were seeing the ball today, and we weren’t seeing it,” Kingsford manager Chris Steber said. “We felt we had a little momentum coming in here today, but Escanaba definitely came ready to play. They’re a very good team. Our starting pitcher (Bradley Bottesi) was getting a little tired, yet we could have done more to help him out. We didn’t get our bats on the ball, although we still had a pretty good run. I’m very proud of the kids.”

Bottesi, who pitched 3 2/3 innings, absorbed the loss. He struck out one, walked two and gave up four runs on three hits. Doernier then fanned one, walked one and allowed three runs on six hits in relief.

Kingsford committed the game’s lone error.

Kingsford threatened in the second frame but stranded baserunners on second and third.

Mason Koski took the loss despite tossing a three-hitter. He struck out seven and walked none.