Marquette flashed leather all the way to 1A title victory

During this season in which hitting and pitching owned the headlines on the way to the Class 1A title for the second straight season, the Marquette baseball team showed again that defense is an important key to winning games and championships as well.

“While you may get double-digit strikeouts in games during the regular season, once you get to the state finals that’s more than likely not going to be the case,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “Teams are here for a reason, and they are going to put the ball in play.”

The Crusaders committed 29 errors in 38 games this season and made a half dozen great plays in the field in Saturday’s championship game win over Father McGivney at Illinois Field in Champaign.

“The guys take pride in their defense,” Hopkins said. “You hear it all the time in other sports, but baseball is no different in my mind as far as defense wins championships. You have to have good hitting and pitching, but your defense, making the routine plays with a couple of great ones mixed in is just as big.”

In the opening four innings against the Griffins, a pair of great stops by Anthony Couch at second base, a sensational running catch while running into the left field wall by Easton Debernardi, a charging grab and throw at shortstop by Alec Novotney and a nifty scoop of that throw in the turf at first base by Sam Mitre helped keep the game tied.

“I just think we all have a strong will to win,” Marquette senior outfielder Payton Guttierez said. “I think we all also want to make every play we can make. We work on our defense a lot during the season and today showed that. There is nothing better than watching one of your teammates make a great play in the field. It gets you pumped up.”

In the fifth, a rocket throw to the plate from right fielder Jaxsen Higgins after a fly ball grab cut down a potential run from scoring to keep his team within two runs.

“Yeah, that throw was perfect, Crusaders senior catcher Keaton Davis said. ”Once I saw Jaxsen catch the ball, I knew we had a shot. As the ball was coming to me, I just told myself, ‘Make sure you catch the ball before you worry about making the tag.’ Jaxsen put it right on the mark, and I was able to hang on. It was a huge play on his part."

“Jaxsen’s throw stopped what could have been a bigger inning than it was,” Hopkins said. “Debernardi’s catch was amazing, and Couch was about as solid as you could be a second base. They made plays when we needed them.”

In the sixth Couch smothered a hard-hit ball going to his right and made a strong throw for the first out, and Higgins followed that with a sliding catch in short right center to take away what looked to be a sure base hit.

Hopkins said throughout the season and even more so in the final two games, Davis was a wall behind the plate.

“Keaton maybe doesn’t always get the credit he deserves behind the plate,” Hopkins said. “He’s good, and he allows us to not think twice about throwing breaking balls when a guy is on third. We know and trust he’s going to find a way to keep the ball from getting by him. Nothing got by him this past weekend and he has an arm that makes opponents think twice before trying to steal.”

Marquette also had a pair of eye-popping plays in Friday’s semifinal victory over Lexington as Mitre made a great catch of a foul pop-up, and the combination of Novotney and Griffin Dobberstein spun a terrific double play around second.

Hopkins said Monday afternoon that winning the state title hasn’t truly set in even 48 hours later. He added that he couldn’t be happier to see his players get to hold the title trophy and see the smiles of triumph on their faces.

“No, it really hasn’t sunk in, but I watched the replay of the game, so it must have really happened,” Hopkins said. “I’m just so happy for the kids. They play for each other, and when you have a group that is always about ‘we’ not ‘me,’ good things are going to happen.

“It was an amazing journey.”