Marquette gets early wake-up call, explodes past Lexington 16-1 in IHSA 1A state semifinals

CHAMPAIGN – The Lexington Minutemen did something in the top of the second inning of the IHSA Class 1A Friday morning state semifinal that hadn’t been accomplished in 8½ weeks.

They scored an earned run against Marquette Crusaders ace Alec Novotney.

Marquette coach Todd Hopkins, slugger Anthony Couch and Novotney all referred to it as a wake-up call.

Talk about waking a sleeping giant.

The Cru responded to Lexington’s one run in the top of the second with 10 of their own in the bottom half.

It propelled the defending Class 1A state champs into Saturday’s 1 p.m. title game back on the artificial surface of Champaign’s Illinois Field via a dominant, 16-1, four-inning dismissal of the Minutemen.

“I guess that first run woke us up, our bats,” said Couch, whose 360-foot, two-run homer over the fence in left-center was the big blow in Marquette’s 10-run answer to Lexington’s tally in the top half. “We were kind of sleepy that first inning, but I think when we’re rolling, we’re rolling all the way through.”

The Crusaders (34-3) sent 16 men to the plate in the second against Lexington right-hander Braeden Barber (loss, 1⅔ IP, 8 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 K).

The inning started with a Grant Dose infield single and was highlighted by RBI hits off the bats of Payton Gutierrez, Keaton Davis, Jaxsen Higgins and – of course – Couch’s big blast.

“It was two strikes, so it was just put the ball in play,” Couch said. “It was middle-in, my perfect pitch. I did [know it was gone], but I’m not going to bat flip. I’m not that type of guy.”

It was enough of a cushion Hopkins felt comfortable pulling Novotney (win, 2 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 2 K) from the mound in order to keep him available for Saturday’s state championship game against downstate Father McGivney, a 16-1 winner in its Friday afternoon semifinal against Pawnee.

“They got one,” Novotney said, “but we came together and packed on a lot of runs in that second inning to get ahead. I wanted to keep [pitching], obviously, but now we’ve still got all three of our best arms to go tomorrow.”

Lexington’s run in the second – the result of a Kayden Knight leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt and Jaxson Goodrich’s seeing-eye, two-out base hit through the right side to score Knight – was the first earned one scored against Novotney since Dwight managed it April 8 and raises his ERA to a still-infinitesimal 0.23.

“When [Lexington] took the lead and got that run on Alec, it woke us up,” Hopkins said. “We had a pretty good second inning, and it kind of snowballed from there.

“We’ve had a target on our back, and to get a chance to get down here and now to defend [last year’s 1A state championship], it’s something special, win or lose tomorrow. Whoever it is, they’re here for a reason, but they’re going to have to go toe-to-toe with us, too.”

Lexington, after exciting its large purple-clad crowd with the early run, did not threaten again and finished with just three hits to Marquette’s 12 and five fielding errors. The Minutemen (19-12), who have only two seniors on their roster, will play in Saturday’s 10 a.m. third-place game.

“It was nice early on to get the crowd into it. ...” Lexington coach Tanner Schieber said. “It was nice to get that run early, but it just wasn’t our day.”

Couch (2 for 3, home run, three RBIs), Novotney (2 for 3 with two doubles and two RBIs, the non-hit being a tough-chance two-run error issued by the IHSA’s official scorer, Davis (2 for 3, RBI, three runs scored), Grant Dose (2 for 3, double, RBI) and Caden Durdan (1 for 1, RBI, three runs scored) led the Marquette offensive onslaught. Griffin Dobberstein, Sam Mitre, Higgins and Gutierrez provided single RBIs for the Cru, which scored 10 in the second, four in the third and two in the fourth to walk it off, a Dose RBI double scoring courtesy runner Rush Keefer enforcing the 15-run rule.

Dobberstein (1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 K) and Couch (1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K) pitched scoreless innings for Marquette.