The Marquette baseball team is, yep, you guessed it, heading to the state finals.

The Crusaders, coming off back-to-back Class 1A state championships, earned a shot this season for a Class 2A title after Tuesday’s 9-6 victory over Brimfield in the Class 2A St. Bede Supersectional held at Schweickert Stadium in Peru.

“We left a few runs out there, and in these games that can sometimes come back and bite you,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “But these guys are just playing with so much confidence, and they just find ways to get it done.”

Marquette (37-3) now moves to Friday’s 2A state semifinals at 7 p.m. on Illinois Field in Champaign against St. Joseph-Ogden, which defeated Williamsville 9-0 in the Springfield Lincoln Land Community College Supersectional.

The Indians finished the season 32-6.

Marquette has now reached state seven times, including six of the last eight seasons.

“I think I probably went against every golden rule there is in baseball, but sometimes you have to go against the book and go with your gut,” Hopkins said. “The guys made every one of those moves that could easily be second-guessed work out.”

Starter Anthony Couch (3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) and reliever Griffin Dobberstein (win, 3⅓ IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 6 BB, 3 K) battled before Easton DeBernardi came on to record the final two outs, both with the tying run at the plate.

“Anthony and Griffin really battled for us, and then DeBernardi comes in, he hasn’t pitched but maybe an inning in the postseason, and get the job done in closing things out,” Hopkins said. “They were all amazing.”

“My curveball was just way too off and on today, and I felt like I was locating my fastball well, but then after the second inning I kind of just lost that too,” Couch said. “It was a battle for me, but I just knew I had to keep working on getting outs. I felt like I did a good job of staying mentally tough and just kept hunting for outs.”

Brimfield scored the game’s opening run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single by Griffin Hougham.

Marquette grabbed the lead in the fourth, scoring four times including a bases-loaded walk by Beau Thompson, a two-run single by Alec Novotney and an RBI double by Dobberstein.

The Indians tied the game 4-4 in the bottom half of the inning on a two-run, two-out single by Dane Fagerburg and a run-scoring base hit by Layne Johnson.

Marquette took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth. Novotney singled in a run, Dobberstein walked with the bases full, and Caden Durdan smacked an RBI the other way to left.

“To be honest, I haven’t been hitting the best,” said Durdan, who also doubled to right in the sixth, and along with DeBernardi lifted a sacrifice fly in the seventh. “Today I was just really trying to stay focused and just put the bat on the ball.

“I was able to work a couple counts in my favor and then just relaxed and put a few good swings together.”

Brimfield used a two-out, two-run single by Brody Kenney in the sixth to close to within 7-6, but Dobberstein retired the next batter on a fielder’s choice to hold onto the lead.

The Indians drew back-to-back walks with one out in the bottom of the seventh before DeBernardi came in to get a pop out. He struck out the final batter to start a Crusaders victory dogpile in the infield.

Novotney finished 4 for 5 with three RBIs, while Grant Dose and Durdan each had a pair of hits.

“We really didn’t talk about making it to state again during the season, but we all knew we had everything we needed to do it,” Novotney said. “Neither Anthony nor Griffin had their best stuff today, but those are the days where you have to ramp up your competitiveness to another level, and both of them did that.”

Hopkins said the game was pretty much what he thought it would be.

“Give Brimfield credit, they have a really good ballclub that can really hit the ball,” he said. “They just wouldn’t go away. They kept battling until the final out. That’s why they were here too.”