Sacred Heart takes win in first game of regional playoff

Image

VILLE PLATTE -- The Sacred Heart Trojans did not need much offense in their 3-0 game one regional round win over St. Martin’s Episcopal here Friday afternoon, as Christian Duplechin and Cody Shipp took to the mound for a combined four hit shut-out victory.
With the win, Sacred Heart goes up 1-0 in the best two-out-of-three series over the Saints. Game two was scheduled for yesterday at 11 a.m., with an if necessary game to be played at 3 p.m.
“We are playing tough right now,” stated Sacred Heart head coach Gary Ashworth. “Our defense was so good today and Christian did an excellent job on the mound. I think he threw 65 pitches in six innings. We just made plays in the field and did enough offensively to win the game.”
“They have a scrappy little club,” Ashworth continued. “I mean they won 20 game this season. That has to count for something. Right now our focus is to try to get the next 21 outs and move on to the next round.”
Despite having a tremendous outing on the mound, things did not start well for Duplechin, as he hit the very first batter he faced. But, Duplechin quickly turned things around and struck out Beau Lawrence for the first out. A line drive on a hit and run was caught by Trojan right fielder Jacob Castille, who promptly doubled up Lawrence to end the inning.
The bottom of the first saw Sacred Heart produce all of the offense needed for the win. Garrett Fontenot was hit by the pitch to lead things off.
After a strike out, JT Harper reached first on a error, moving Fontenot to second base. A balk allowed both runners to advance one base.
Alec Gotro walked to load the bases. A passed ball scored Fontenot and put runners at second and third. A fly out to center field recorded the second out of the inning. Gabe Fontenot then followed with the biggest hit of the game, a single that drove in both Harper and Gotro.
Duplechin continued to work his magic on the mound over the next three innings, only allowing one hit and two base runners.
Sacred Heart threatened in the bottom of the second and the bottom of the third with lead off doubles, but could not take advantage of the situations.
In the top of the fifth, St. Martin’s got a runner to reach third base, but the Trojan defense stiffened once again and shut down the threat.
In the seventh inning, Shipp came into the game in relief of Duplechin and after hitting the lead off batter, induced three outs to close out the game and the win.