The verdict against Alton would account for the only loss in Tim Harrawood’s 11-1 record for Marquette. “Our summer team should be hellacious,” the Redbirds’ Robert Hopkins said after a game showcasing talent that would stock Alton Legion Post 126’s roster. Baseball was the only boys sport that offered a city matchup for Alton’s Explorers and Redbirds and a big crowd turned out at LCCC to Brad Fields hurl Alton High to an 8-6 victory that would be the Explorers’ last defeat. Charles Duchesne and May yielded successive losses to Carrollton and Alton. They split a March doubleheader with East Alton-Wood River and when Civic Memorial pitcher Brad Thomas beat them with a four-hitter, Marquette was unimpressed with a 2-2 start.Īnother loss would come in a split twinbill with St. The Explorers would finish 31-5, with four of those defeats coming vs. It was quite the 1980 spring tour for Marquette baseball. “A lot of us do that by listening to music, like the Grateful Dead. “We want to keep it mellow,” he told The Telegraph.
That was a welcome policy shift to Explorers like catcher Mike Schwarte. “The kids can turn up the music as loud as they want.” “On our way up there, we will relax and be as loose as we can be,” DeCourcey told The Telegraph’s Steve Porter before leaving for Springfield 40 years ago. But he was already seasoned enough to know the tension that came with the program’s first state trip two years earlier needed an escape outlet. When he retired in 2009, only three other coaches had won more games at one school.ĭeCourcey was just eight years older than his best players in 1980. DeCourcey would remain in that job for 33 years that brought a 641-351 record and Hall of Fame reverence. Greg DeCourcey had been hired in 1977 at age 23 to be the Explorers head coach. In 1979, Marquette went 22-6 and was eliminated by Virden in the sectional title game. The Explorers reached state in ’78, losing to Vienna in the quarterfinals to cap a 20-7-1 season. The IHSA’s two-class split for baseball – placing schools with enrollments at 750 or fewer in Class A – in 1978 punched Marquette’s ticket to postseason powerhouse. Louis Cardinals.Īnd the time was right for Marquette - then a school of about 600 students - to ascend.
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When Marquette was able to survive the state quarterfinals – it went 3-4 in those games – it never lost a semifinal and claimed state championships in 1980 and ‘84 and a runner-up finish in 1988.īut the launching pad for Marquette’s baseball tradition came from 1980 when a squad featuring a pair or brothers in the outfield, a pair of aces on the mound and a ‘Whiteyball’ approach baserunning abandon two years before that term was coined for Whitey Herzog’s World Series champion St.
Tossing in the last two years of the ‘70s to span a dozen baseball seasons from 1978-89, the Explorers won 11 regional championships and seven sectional titles that sent them to seven state tourneys that then featured an Elite Eight bracket of eight qualifiers. Marquette Explorers baseball owned the 1980s. But splitting the difference to revisit 40 years ago – June 3, 1980, to be precise – Marquette Catholic was reveling in the jubilation of a Class A baseball state championship earned on a Tuesday night at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield.Īlton mayor Paul Lenz declared Wednesday, June 4 to be “Marquette Victory Day.” Turned out be more of a Victory Decade.
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