LUMBERTON – Sacred Heart coach Drew Dewease shamelessly admitted he’s a superstitious person.
After Sacred Heart’s 3-7 start to the season, he changed his pullover, shirt, pants, shoes and socks in anticipation for the Crusaders’ rivalry game with the Lumberton Panthers Monday. If the game didn’t go well, he was prepared to change his hat, too.
The Crusaders snapped their five-game losing streak at Lumberton with a 9-6 Region 8-1A win.
“I’d wear the same stuff to practice if it works,” Dewease said.
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Sacred Heart moves to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in the region, while Lumberton drops to 7-5 and 2-2.
Luke Odom
After giving up two runs in the first and two in the third, the fiery sophomore starting pitcher settled into the game nicely for Sacred Heart. Odom finished the night with eight strikeouts in his complete-game performance, and he allowed six runs on seven hits.
The bulk of Lumberton’s production came early in the game, and things changed for Odom when he worked a knot in his arm out, he said after the game.
I was rubbing it the whole game trying to get it out,” he said. “It finally came out and I was lights out from then. I just tried to stick with it.
“I have to go home and ice it, I guess.”
After giving up four runs through the first three innings, he pitched a clean fourth inning with two strikeouts, struck out two more in the fifth while giving up a run and had a 1-2-3 frame in the sixth. He found himself in trouble in the seventh but worked out of it to earn the win.
Getting hot at the plate
Sacred Heart was held to just one hit through the first two frames, but it had some hard-hit balls right at Lumberton defenders. The Crusaders’ eight-hole hitter, eighth-grader Luke Wiest, singled to lead off the third inning, then senior Nathan Gerald picked up the RBI three batters later to cut Lumberton’s lead to 2-1.
“I think the first two innings, we hit some hard balls right at them,” Dewease said. “I ran us out of the first inning getting Luke (Odom) thrown out at home. We just hit some balls right at them, then we kind of changed the approach a little bit. We took some more pitches and took (Lumberton’s starter junior Antwuan Lampton) deeper in the count.”
Trailing 4-1 in the fourth inning, Sacred Heart plated two more runs to keep up with Lumberton. Griffin Wiggins and Paul Rowell Jr. picked up an RBI each during that frame, then eighth-grader Levi Odom added another RBI in the fifth to tie the game 4-4.
The Crusaders jumped ahead 7-5 in the top of the sixth, thanks to groundout from Luke Odom and a base hit by sophomore Luke Hicks. The lead was pushed to 9-5 in the seventh when Gerald added one more RBI, then an error at second base allowed another run to cross during the same play.
“We just kind of sprayed it around the ballpark,” Dewease said. “I think Levi (Odom) had a couple of hits tonight. He crushed a double to kind of spark it, and everybody else just kind of fed off of it. Hitting is kind of contagious.”
Lumberton’s focus
Panthers’ coach Kody Lancaster said his team’s focus has been an issue all season. Lumberton entered the night 7-4 overall and 2-1 in region play.
“When you have a youthful team, it happens,” he said. “Until we figure out how to eliminate our mental mistakes, we’re going to continue to have some issues. That’s really been the Achilles heel for us.”
The Panthers looked ready for a region win after the first two innings, but six of Lumberton’s seven hits came from the top three batters in the lineup. Junior CK Bowens went 2-for-2 from the plate with a walk and a hit-by-pitch, and he also scored four times, junior Jared Tribett was 2-for-3 and junior Davion Edwards had two hits from his three at-bats.
“They put in a lot of time,” Lancaster said. “They really can swing it. That’s what we try to do. Get those guys on, get them over and get them in. Hopefully, they’ll continue to swing the sticks and hopefully the middle to the bottom will start producing as well.”
The two rivals will square off against Tuesday at the Sacred Heart Athletic Complex. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
