Sacred Heart builds up its young baseball program

There’s a sense of newness and youth within the baseball team at Sacred Heart. The team is in its second varsity season, has no seniors on the roster and is led by a 29-year-old coach.

The object now for coach Joe Jarquin and his players is to build a sense of success.

After playing an abbreviated schedule in 2013 and going winless in their first varsity season last year, the Knights were 5-19 entering Thursday. They play in Division II-A, with opponents including regular powers University School of Jackson and Tipton-Rosemark.

“I think through repetition and just hard work they’ve just gotten better as a team,” Jarquin said of his players Thursday.

Sacred Heart baseball started with a few informal practices in 2012 as staff, including former AD John Stang, tried to gauge students’ interest in the sport. Jarquin is now the head baseball coach and has taken over for Stang as athletic director.

There are exactly nine players on this year’s baseball roster and no junior varsity team, so when someone is unavailable to play an athlete from a different Sacred Heart team is asked to help out. Developing a bench is tough, too, as the Catholic high school located on McClellan Road in North Jackson has fewer than 100 students.

That means even freshmen will have to figure out how to hit and pitch against older, experienced players from other schools, as first baseman and pitcher Hunter Tims did last year.

“I had to make myself better to compete with those guys,” the sophomore Tims said.

Right-handers Austin Winkelman, a sophomore, and Grant Eblen, a junior, are two of the team’s primary pitchers. Junior second baseman Kolby Johnson and junior shortstop Trevor Masterson anchor the infield, and Jarquin said if he were to choose a team captain it would be Masterson, who as of Thursday was batting .306.

“Last year it was frustrating because we never won a game or anything like that, but I knew that we could pull through with a win,” Masterson said.

That first happened earlier this year with a victory at Jackson Central-Merry. Sacred Heart led early and avoided the mistakes that had allowed too many opponents in the past to take the lead.

“You would have thought we won a district championship or something like that on the first one,” Jarquin said. “I was ecstatic. I was so happy for ‘em.”

Jarquin was used to winning, having pitched in high school and participated in the Dixie Youth World Series as a teenager before playing one year of junior college baseball at LSU-Eunice.

Masterson described Jarquin as “hilarious” and “a character” and Tims agreed Jarquin was laid back last year but seems to expect a little more of the players this season.

“He sees our potential now,” Tims said.

The school’s athletic success has so far been led by the soccer team, but funds have been raised through Sacred Heart, St. Mary’s School and St. Mary’s Catholic Church to build a new baseball field at Sacred Heart — hopefully by next season. A softball field and team might get started in the next couple years.

“I think once we add those facilities more athletes will come to Sacred Heart,” Jarquin said, later adding he’d like the Knights to compete seriously for a district title in the next three or four years.

When asked about memorable personal moments, Tims noted a difficult catch he made near the dugout in a Wednesday sweep of Fayette-Ware. Masterson is proud to have the first hit in team history, a single to left field against South Gibson in 2013.

For now the team will have a tough challenge trying to compete with bigger, more established opponents, but Sacred Heart’s baseball players can appreciate being part of the initial attempt.

“It’s something I can look back on and be proud of,” Masterson said.

Craig Thomas, 425-9634