Despite the temperature being in the mid-40s and a strong gusty wind blowing straight in from centerfield, the Marquette baseball team got off to a hot start against visiting Eureka in Wednesday afternoon’s game at Masinelli Field in Ottawa.

The Crusaders scored three runs on four hits in the bottom of the first inning, then rode the arms of Alec Novotney and Griffin Dobberstein to a 3-0 victory over the Hornets.

The win improved Marquette to 8-0 on the season. Eureka, which finished in third place in last season’s Class 2A state finals, dropped to 4-4.

“The kids were able to come out and hit some balls hard in the first inning, we were able to get some runners on base and then were able to get the lead right away,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “On a brutal day like today you want to be playing with a lead, and we were able to do that. After that first inning [Eureka starting pitcher Keegan Myers] really kept us off-balance and we also weren’t maybe as patient a few times than we needed to be.

“Alec and Grif both threw the ball well and we played a pretty clean game defensively. We still have a lot to work on, but this was a nice win for us over a really good baseball team.”

Marquette’s first inning began with Grant Dose smacking a single to left and advanced to second on an error. Dobberstein followed with a line drive base hit to center to give the hosts the only run they would end up needing.

After Dobberstein advanced to second on a wild pitch, Anthony Couch stung an RBI base hit to left center. Then with two outs, Jaxson Higgins singled Couch to second and Caden Durdan and Braxton Nelle walked, the latter pushing across what proved to be the final run of the game.

“We talk all the time about having quick starts and just trying to jump on teams in the first inning,” said Dobberstein, who finished with two of Marquette’s five hits and a walk. “Today wasn’t ideal to hit, cold, wind blowing right in your face, but I feel like we hit some balls pretty hard.”

In the top half of innings, Novotney went four innings allowing a pair of hits, no walks and six strikeouts, while Dobberstein went the final three retiring nine of the 10 batters he faced, six on strikeouts.

“Alec was super solid today, and for me, I just wanted to come in and kind of hold things down,” Dobberstein said. “I was excited to pitch today; it had been over week. It worked out really well as I was able to really get loose in the bullpen before coming in. I felt like all of my pitches were working well, and other than a couple pitches, I felt like I hit my locations.”

The left-handed Myers allowed just one hit after the opening inning and finished going 5⅔ innings with five walks and a pair of strikeouts.

Brody Wertz and Adam Blunier each singled for the visitors.

“The one thing I know, no matter what, is our team is going to compete,” Eureka coach Dane Wear said. “This was our fifth game in the six days, and with our pitching Keegan was up. We have a ton of guys who just know how to pitch, and he is one of them. He had a tough first inning, Marquette jumped on some pitches, but after that he settled in and kept us in the game.

“(Novotney) and (Dobberstein), I mean they are just two really good pitchers. We haven’t really faced that high of velocity so far this season, and throw in a cold day, hitting was tough. But I thought we hit a couple balls hard and had a couple of other nice at-bats. We just couldn’t really get much going offensively.”

Marquette is now off until Tuesday’s Tri-County Conference game at Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell.