Marquette Crusaders roar past Gibault for 1A title, school's first in any team sport

PEORIA — It's not hard to tell when Marquette Academy baseball coach Todd Hopkins is savoring the moment.

Just listen for the roar.

Ignited by Jack Snook's deficit-erasing home run, the Crusaders showed the cool experience that's become their trademark this postseason by exploding for eight runs in the second inning to take control. They continued to add on, making it easy for winning pitcher John Thompson and reliever Luke Couch to breeze through Waterloo Gibault for a 14-5 victory in the IHSA Class 1A state championship game here at Peoria's Dozer Park on Saturday afternoon.

Snook's two-run homer, which wiped out a 1-0 Hawks lead and sparked the eight-run uprising that propelled MA to the crown, was one of his three safeties on the day, joining by Max Donahue and Nick Melvin with a trio of hits among the 16 the Cru had as a club, tying the record held by Goreville against Somonauk in 2016's title game for most hits by one team. With Gibault's nine hits, the teams paired up for the most by competitors in one championship contest.

The win not only gives Marquette its first state championship in school history in an IHSA team sport, but also the city of Ottawa its first ever title in a team sport.

"Wow. Somebody pinch me," said Hopkins, who flexed and roared with emotion right after the state championship medal was hung around his neck, to the joy of the Cru fans.

"I told the kids two things before the game: Leave it all on the line, give it all you've got and with no regrets, let the chips fall where they may, and that it's just too damn late to be scared. We're in it, let's go. If we're going to go down, it'll be going all out, being aggressive, not take pitches, take extra bases and just not be afraid of this, and that's what we did.

"We couldn't have hit the baseball better than we did the last two days. We had every (player) we had out there hitting and hitting well. This season, we didn't go knocking the ball around a lot. It was all pitching and defense for us, and our pitcher was tough today. John battled hard against a team that can really swing it, then Luke came in and did what he had to do. ...

"It's going to be hard to say goodbye to these seniors who've done so much for us, but we get to say goodbye with our index fingers in the air, and there's nothing better than that."

As strong as Thompson was in going through the first six innings, he was just a bit off early, allowing Gibault a single run in the first and two in the second. However, the but Cru inning in between took care of that.

Max Donahue led off the second with a soft single over third off losing pitcher Mark Branz (9-1, 4 K, 2 BB) before Snook came up and clubbed a huge drive over the fence in left field. One out later, singles by Nick Melvin, Jay Scott and Shane Reynolds loaded the bases for Nate Melvin, who grounded a two-run single to right. Couch then rapped a two-RBI single to center to make it a six-run frame and, after a double by Logan Komater, Donahue clubbed his second hit of the inning to plate two more runs and created an 8-1 edge.

Though Gibault picked away with single runs in the fifth and sixth, that was all the support Thompson (10-0, 4 K, 2 W) needed.

"Against a team that hits so well, and all of them hit well at this point in the season, you have to attack every batter one through nine, and you can't let up," said Thompson. "Considering who it was against and that it was a state championship game, I'd have to say this is one of my better games this season. ...

"It's amazing. This is the best team ever. They score runs, they play defense. They're just amazing.

"I told my teammates before we even came down here that at this point, stats do not matter. Hardware does. It didn't matter if it was the ugliest game we played all year, as long as we take the trophy home at the end of it, that's all that matters, and it happened."

That win was locked up with a run in the third on which Nick Melvin scored all the way from second as brother Nate beat out a dropped-third strike with two outs. In the fourth, Komater was hit by a pitch and later scored on an error. In the sixth, MA plated four more on Nick Melvin's two-run triple, his steal of home and an RBI single by Reynolds.

Crouch came on to get the final three outs and ended up at the bottom of a player dogpile for the third time in the last four games.

"You have to tip your hat to their hitters," said Gibault coach Andy Skaer. "Mike was ahead of a lot of those hitters, but they had a nice two-strike approach, they'd get the ball behind the infielder, and the line kept moving. The home run started them on their way in that big inning, and it kind of snowballed on us from there. It was just one of those days.

"The game didn't go the way we wanted it to today, but we have nothing to hang our heads about. Being 27-9 is a great year, and I'm really happy with our season.

"This was probably the two best teams in 1A playing in the last game of the season, and when you get here, you have to hope it's a 50-50 game, and you roll the dice. It just came up snake eyes for us today."

–

At Dozer Park, Peoria

Marquette 14, Waterloo Gibault 5

(Key: AB-R-H-RBI)

GIBAULT (5) — Sweeney 2b-p 4-1-1-0, Branz p-2b 3-0-1-0, Grohmann pr 0-1-0-0, Buckner 1b 2-1-1-1, Janson 1b 0-0-0-0, Reinholtz cf 4-1-2-2, Metcalf dh 4-0-0-0, Simonton rf 0-0-0-0, Schilling ss 2-0-1-0, Oberkfell ss 1-0-0-0, Kinchloe lf 2-1-1-0, Schrader 3b 3-0-1-0, Papenberg c 3-0-1-1. Totals 28-5-9-4.

MARQUETTE (14) — Na. Melvin ss 4-1-1-2, Couch 2b-p 4-1-1-2, Komater cf 3-2-1-0, Donahue dh 4-1-3-2, Thompson p 0-0-0-0, Flavel 2b 0-0-0-0, Snook rf 4-2-3-2, Price 1b 3-0-0-0, Ni. Melvin lf 4-3-3-2, Scott c 1-0-1-0, Green cr-pr 0-2-0-0, Waldron ph 1-0-0-0, Dougherty cr 0-1-0-0, Reynolds 3b 4-1-3-1. Totals 20-2-2-1.

Gibault (27-9) 102 011 0 — 5 9 1

Marquette (33-1) 081 104 x — 14 16 3

LOB – Gibault 7, Marquette 4. 2B – Komater, Snook. 3B – Ni. Melvin. HR – Reinholtz, Snook. SAC – Kinchloe, Scott. SF – Buckner. SB – Janson, Ni. Melvin 2, Na. Melvin, Dougherty. HBP – Schilling (by Thompson), Komater (by Branz).

Gibault ip r er h bb k

Branz (L, 9-1) 5.2 14 13 15 2 4

Sweeney 0.1 0 0 1 0 0

Marquette

Thompson (W, 10-0) 6.0 5 2 9 1 4

Couch 1.0 0 0 0 1 2