After a rather shaky start to the season, the Sacred Heart Trojans have reeled off eight wins out of their last ten games to earn themselves the No. 8 ranking in the Division IV playoffs and have secured home field advantage in their first round series.
Their opponent for the first round; no other than their rival for decades, the No. 9 ranked St. Edmund Blue Jays. Sacred Heart and St. Ed’s split games this year, as the Blue Jays defeated the Trojans at home 3-1 and Sacred Heart returning the favor at their place with a 5-4 victory.
The two teams will tangle in a best two out of three series beginning today at 4:30 at Aswell-Cappell Field. Game two of the series will take place tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., while an if necessary game is slated for 11 a.m. Saturday.
If weather is a factor for today’s game, the series would begin tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. with game two to take place at 10 a.m. Saturday and the if necessary game to follow the conclusion of game two.
Sacred Heart finished the season with an overall record of 17-12-1. The Trojans did not begin the season on the best of notes, as they were 7-9-1 in their first 17 contests.
Sacred Heart has had some signature wins this year as they have taken down the likes of Covington, South Beauregard, Oak Hill, Opelousas Catholic and Pitkin. The Trojans finished the district season with a record of 3-2.
However, Sacred Heart head coach Gary Ashworth credits his pitching staff for the turn around in the season.
“Our scoring has been there all year long,” stated Ashworth. “But, the difference in the last part of the year has been the work on the mound. We really don’t have a shut down guy per se. What we do have is a bunch of guys that go out and get the job done on the hill. It has truly been pitching by committee all year long.”
The Blue Jays come into the game with an overall record of 21-10 and were champions of District 4-1A. St. Ed’s has defeated some very good teams this year including Iowa, Kinder, Opelousas Catholic and Pine Prairie.
Ashworth knows it will take some very good baseball to take down the Blue Jays over the series.
“This sets up to be a very good series,” said Ashworth. “They have some good pitching and even though they don’t hit the ball for power, they can small ball you to death. We are going to definitely have to limit our mistakes and not let them have a crazy, big inning because we cannot make an out. The theme for this game is GAO, which means ‘Get an out’.”
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TRACEY JAGNEAUX Sports Editor