Latest / Illinois Valley - Shaw Local / ‘Play up?’ No problem. Marquette baseball responded to bump to 2A with another IHSA State Finals appearance

Transcript

‘Play up?’ No problem. Marquette baseball responded to bump to 2A with another IHSA State Finals appearance · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Play up, no problem. Marquette Baseball responded to bump to
• 0:08
  two A with another SS State Finals appearance. Written by J. T. Penalty,
• 0:15
  this article is being read by an automated voice brought
• 0:17
  to you by Everlett. In the short term, when the
• 0:21
  Marquette Academy baseball team outlasted Brentfield at the home of
• 0:25
  the Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp last week to win the
• 0:28
  class to a Saint Bede Supersectional, it sent the Crusaders
• 0:31
  back to the ISS State Finals, where they eventually placed third.
• 0:36
  In the long term, it also guaranteed Marquette, a non
• 0:41
  boundaried private school with a listed code enrollment of just
• 0:45
  one hundred and thirty five students, but subject to the
• 0:48
  issa's success adjustment policy thanks to its three consecutive state appearances,
• 0:53
  will remain in Class two A for baseball through at
• 0:56
  least the twenty twenty eight season. Playing up didn't seem
• 0:59
  to buy this. Springs Crusaders. Marquette finished the season with
• 1:04
  a sparkling thirty eight four record, winning its first twenty
• 1:07
  one ballgames, and shortly thereafter the Tri County Conference, Bishop
• 1:11
  McNamara Regional, Indian Creek Sectional and Saint Bede super sectional titles.
• 1:17
  Its lone postseason loss came the state's semifinals to eventual
• 1:21
  to A champion Saint Joe Ogden. We've heard it from
• 1:24
  everybody the last two years, Marquette ace pitcher and twenty
• 1:27
  twenty six graduate Alec Novatny said of the team's success
• 1:31
  coming in Class one A, and from the very first practice,
• 1:35
  we embraced it. The whole year, We've been playing with
• 1:38
  confidence and a chip on our shoulder that we can
• 1:41
  beat anybody we play. I think we did prove we
• 1:44
  belonged in two to A. Third place wasn't the game
• 1:47
  we wanted to win, but we still went one one
• 1:49
  down here got third place. Not many teams can say that.
• 1:53
  It wasn't the first time Marquette found success as part
• 1:56
  of the two a field sandwich. Between the Creuse class
• 1:59
  won A state championships in twenty nineteen and the back
• 2:03
  to back twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five to
• 2:05
  one of titles. Marquette claimed two aregional and sectional championships
• 2:10
  in twenty twenty one. It did the same in twenty fourteen.
• 2:14
  During a brief tenure in two A veteran market coach
• 2:17
  Todd Hopkins, who over twenty eight seasons has led the
• 2:21
  Crusaders to all seventeen of the regional championships, eleven sectional titles,
• 2:26
  seven state finals appearances, and three state championships in program history,
• 2:31
  put it succinctly after Saturday's four to one victory over
• 2:34
  a thirty win Freeberg team in the class to a
• 2:37
  third place game, I think we showed that we can
• 2:40
  play in two A, he said. The ISS success adjustment
• 2:44
  policy was modified last year. The new policy reads, entering
• 2:48
  each school year, if a non boundaried school team has
• 2:52
  won two state final trophies in the past three years
• 2:54
  in a sport, they will then be subject to the
• 2:57
  adjustment and move up one class in that sport, having
• 3:01
  brought home one a's first placed trophy in both twenty
• 3:04
  twenty four and twenty twenty five, followed by twenty twenty
• 3:06
  six as to a third place trophy marquette for baseball only.
• 3:11
  As a school's success in one sport does not affect
• 3:14
  other sports, will remain in two A for at least
• 3:17
  the twenty seven and twenty twenty eight seasons. Although this
• 3:21
  year's team was most certainly senior, led by starters such
• 3:24
  as Novotny third place game winning pitcher Anthony Couch, centerfielder
• 3:29
  Grant Dose, and catcher Jackson Higgins. Six of the ten
• 3:33
  players in the starting lineup last weekend at Champagne's Illinois
• 3:37
  Field are eligible to return next spring. That includes a
• 3:41
  pair of players who launched home runs in Saturday's third
• 3:43
  place contest and pitched high impact innings this season. Seniors
• 3:48
  to be Easton da Bernardi and Griffin Dauberstein, practice hard,
• 3:53
  make sure we get better every day, work as a team,
• 3:56
  and stay coachable. All those things. Da Bernardi said of
• 4:00
  what it will take for Marquette to continue to be
• 4:02
  a state powerhouse no matter what class the Crusaders play in. Honestly,
• 4:07
  we just have to stick to our brand of baseball,
• 4:09
  Douberstein said. This year we hit the ball around a lot,
• 4:13
  but our focus needs to be on no errors, throw strikes,
• 4:16
  play good defense, hit the ball when needed, just continue
• 4:20
  the worker seniors put in. Follow their example. They've provided
• 4:23
  a great example the last four years here. We just
• 4:27
  have to try to follow in their footsteps.