Work in progress

Gary Ashworth promises to do better.
“It falls back on me,” the Sacred Heart baseball coach said. “I got to do a better job of training these guys and putting them in a position to have success.”
The Trojans have dropped three straight contests. After notching a 7-6 victory over Beau Chene at the Eunice Tournament, Sacred Heart closed out the tournament losing 13-8 to Ouachita Christian and then 9-3 to Kinder. Then on Monday of this week, Sacred Heart lost to Lafayette Christian 10-0.
The Trojans are giving up too many free bases -- 45 of them to be exact in the past five games.
“It all starts with pitching,” Ashworth said. “We have had some injuries in our pitching staff that have stretched us thin. So we are getting back to the basics in our bullpen work and with our pitching mechanics. This is a really good high school pitching staff that I believe in.”
The losing streak could have been four in a row if it wasn’t for some clutch pitching and hitting.
Sacred Heart’s Gabe Fontenot came in the game to shut down the Gators for the final out of the fifth inning. Fontenot would not surrender a hit in two innings and one third of work.
With Beau Chene’s bat silenced, Sacred Heart entered the sixth trailing 6-2.
Gabe Wilmouth got things going with a drag bunt single and advanced to second on a groundout. Wilmouth would score on a single by Peyton Feucht. A triple by Alex McElwee drove in Feucht. A double by Isaac Leger brought McElwee home.
That cut lead down to 6-5.
Wilmouth again led off the seventh with a drag bunt single and scored the tying run on a sac bunt. McElwee then drove in the winning run with a double to right field.
“Gabe came out of the bullpen and stopped the bleeding for us,” Ashworth said. “Then we got two clutch drag bunts from Gabe Wilmoth.”
The following day against Ouachita Christian, Sacred Heart held a lead late in the game as Fontenot, Zeph Arnold and Hayden Fontenot all drove in runs in the fifth inning. Entering the sixth, the Trojans held a 8-6 lead but OCS scored four runs in the sixth and then three more in the seventh.
“Hayden Fontenot and Zeph Arnold both came up with clutch hits that gave us the lead,” Ashworth said. “Ethan Fontenot gave us a strong outing but in the sixth we gave up two free bases to start the inning and they collected some timely hits that spun the game on us and let them regain the momentum. We just couldn’t answer back and the game got away from us.”
Sacred Heart closed out the tournament with the loss to Kinder. The Yellowjackets came up with timely hits in that game as well.
“We trailed early and just couldn’t catch them,” Ashworth said. “We gave up two runs with two outs with nobody on in three different innings.”
Sacred Heart (7-6) will look to snap its losing streak when it hosts Opelousas High on Thursday and then Glenmora and Buckeye this weekend.
Ashworth promises that the Trojans will get right.
“We will get this thing going in the right direction this weekend,” Ashworth said.