Baseball: Aurora Christian falls in sectional championship game
The Marquette baseball team had all kinds of traffic on the base paths in three of the first four innings against Aurora Christian in Saturday’s Class 1A Harvest Christian sectional championship game but didn’t score.
That changed in the top of the fifth.
The Crusaders finally broke the ice with three runs, then added two more in the sixth and eventually recorded a 5-1 win at Trout Park.
Marquette (32-3) will now take its 15-game winning streak into Monday’s DeKalb (NIU) supersectional against Fulton (18-13), which topped River Ridge 3-2 at Lena-Winslow.
Aurora Christian ends the season at 21-15.
While the Crusaders had seven baserunners in the opening four innings against Eagles starter Zach Zappia, their starter Alec Novotney was four frames into a complete-game three-hitter where he allowed no earned runs, just one walk, hit a batter and struck out 13, including seven looking.
“We have some things to clean up, like our bunting and baserunning, which were not very good today, but we’ll figure it out,” said Marquette coach Todd Hopkins eluding to a bunt-turned-double play in the fourth. “To do what Alec did today against a team that scored 13 runs on 13 some hits three days ago against a very good Harvest Christian team is unreal. I think we all settled down after we got those three, then two more, but this time of year you have to keep the hammer down and Alec did that.”
In the Marquette fifth, Caden Durdan coaxed a one-out walk and moved to second on a wild pitch before Novotney drove an 0-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single. Griffin Dobberstein then scored Novotney with a double on a grounder down the third-base line and Sam Mitre followed that with RBI missile to center to make it 3-0.
“(Marquette) came in here 31-3 and the defending state champions. ... I just tried to stress to my guys that all the pressure was on them, they were expected to be in this game,” Aurora Christian coach Andy Zorger said. “We just ran into a really good arm today.
“(Zach) has been a magician a couple of times this year working out of some tight jams, including in the regional championship. He was able to wiggle out in the first few innings again today, but just couldn’t quite get out of the fifth. He’s been a guy who has gone out every time and given us a chance to win this season, it just didn’t work out today.”
Zappia finished going 4⅔ innings, allowing six hits, three earned runs with three walks and four strikeouts.
Marquette added two in the sixth as Anthony Couch led off with a single off reliever Jack Burns (2⅓ IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 K) and later scored ahead of Grant Dose on a two-run base hit by pinch-hitter Easton DeBernardi.
Aurora Christian broke the shutout in the sixth when Noah Hensley led off with a double to right, moved up on an error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kaleb Elwood.
Novotney, who fired 67 of his 96 pitches for strikes, said he knew he’d have to bring his best stuff to the field on Saturday.
“We watched them play on Wednesday before our game and our pitching coach Brad Waldron kept a chart. So we had a pretty good scouting report on how we wanted to pitch each guy. They can hit.
“Really, though, our sequences weren’t a whole lot different than what we normally do. I just knew I had to hit my spots, and I felt like I did that today.”
Preston Morel and Noah Zappia also singled for the Eagles.
Crusaders senior catcher Keaton Davis, who singled and doubled, said it was “typical Novotney” on the mound and at the plate.
“When Alec is on the mound, I feel things get simpler for me,” Davis said with a smile. “I just hold the glove up in a spot and he hits it. Today we went with the slider when he was 0-2 or 1-2 because it was really working, but his fastball was just as good.
“If we need a big hit, I’d say I’d want either Alec or Sam at the plate. They just come through when we need it. Alec did it for us today to get things going.“