The Marquette baseball team, while a very talented club, showed why getting to the IHSA final four isn’t easy, especially after moving up a class.

For the Class 2A Crusaders – back-to-back 1A state champions – it started with a pair of tough regional games, including needing a walk-off home run from senior Anthony Couch to top Bishop McNamara. Marquette then hit their way to a pair of sectional wins before capturing a back-and-forth, on-the-edge-of-your seat 9-6 win over Brimfield in Tuesday’s St. Bede Supersectional.

“When you get this late in the season, a lot of times games play out like [Tuesday supersectional] did,” said Marquette coach Todd Hopkins, who will be guiding the Crusaders to a seventh state finals in his 28th season. “I felt like when we went up 4-1, we were in a good spot, but give [Brimfield] credit, they came right back. Then we were up three again in the fifth, and they came back. A big key for us was getting those two runs in the top of the seventh to just give us a little cushion heading to the bottom.

“I thought our guys played a very gutsy game. We had a couple of innings where we left the bases loaded and didn’t score, and had a call at the plate not go our way, but these guys have a great ability to just flush it and move on from it. Having that short-term memory is often a big difference in the outcome in big games.”

Marquette (37-3) will take on St. Joseph-Ogden (38-2) in Friday’s semifinals at 7 p.m. on Illinois Field in Champaign. The Spartans defeated Williamsville 9-0 in the Springfield Lincoln Land Community College Supersectional. The winner of Friday’s contest will take on the winner of the other semifinal between Harvest-Westminster (27-7) and Freeburg (30-9).

“[St. Joseph-Ogden] has been ranked ahead of us by PBR (Prep Baseball Report) all season long and the top pick of everybody to win Class 2A from the start,” Hopkins said. “We’ve watched them play and have some information on them. They are a very talented team that plays a tough schedule, competes in a very tough [Illini Prairie] Conference and had a real gauntlet of a sectional complex to get through.

“It’s going to take a super-human effort to compete with them, and hopefully we have that in us Friday.”

Marquette has hit .380 as a team, scored 10.3 runs per outing and is 6-0 in one-run games this season. The lineup features seniors Alec Novotney (.478, 19 doubles, 3 HR, 44 RBI), Couch (.383, 5 HR, 55 RBI), Grant Dose (.375, 2 HR, 38 RBI) and Jaxson Higgins (.333, 2 HR, 29 RBI), as well as juniors Griffin Dobberstein (.407, 8 HR, 37 RBI), Caden Durdan (.394, 9 doubles, 29 RBI), Beau Thompson (.366, 12 RBI), Braxton Nelle (.361, 1 HR, 15 RBI) and Easton DeBernardi (.336, 12 HR, 53 RBI).

On the mound, the Crusaders have posted a team ERA of 2.43, led by Novotney (8-1, 1.32 ERA, 53 IP, 31 H, 4 BB, 102 K), Couch (12-1, 3.65 ERA, 48 IP, 39 H, 32 BB, 68 K), Dobberstein (4-1, 1.88 ERA, 41 IP, 27 H, 15 BB, 68 K) and DeBernardi (5-0, 2.46 ERA, 37 IP, 24 H, 33 BB, 52 K). Novotney is the probable starter for Friday’s semifinal.

“This feeling never gets old,” Couch said after Tuesday’s state-clinching victory. “I think we all knew this is something we could accomplish, and it’s awesome that we did it. As great as it is to make it to state, just like the last two years, we’re going there to win.

“I feel like we’ve played with a lot of confidence all season, we’re hot right now, knock on wood, so now we just have to keep it going for two more games.”

St. Joseph-Ogden will enter Friday’s game on a 16-game winning streak. The Spartans have averaged 8.6 runs per game while allowing just over two.

Seniors Trevor Ames (.467, 11 HR, 64 RBI), Logan Rosenthal (.388, 1 HR, 25 RBI), Bryson Houchens (.385, 10 HR, 53 RBI), Parker Finch (.364, 8 doubles, 18 RBI), Kodey McKinney (.295, 1 HR, 19 RBI), Will Haley (.277, three triples, 27 RBI), Asher Pruemer (.274, 1 HR, 27 RBI) and Cam Schluter (.264, 4 HR, 27 RBI), as well as junior Finn Miller (.361, 2 HR, 28 RBI) have led the way with the bats.

On the mound, SJO has a team ERA of 1.62 and allows just under five hits a game. They’ve been led by Fitch (10-2, 1.87 ERA, 75 IP, 58 H, 15 BB, 72 K), who fired a three-hit shutout in supersectional, Pruemer (10-0, 1.13 ERA, 68 IP, 46 H, 10 BB, 87 K), Ames (7-0, 1,24 ERA, 34 IP, 27 H, 18 BB, 37 K) and junior Dalton York (5-0, 1.24 ERA, 34 IP, 23 H, 15 BB, 43 K).

“Getting moved up to 2A this year, we just wanted to earn the respect of the other teams in the class and show that we belong where we are at,” Hopkins said. “The kids have used it as a big chip on their shoulder, and I think that’s a great thing.

“The last two years were the last two years. These kids are hungry, and they are out to prove something.”