NATCHEZ — After almost two decades of coaching the Huntington baseball team, Trinity head coach Mitch Ashmore has a new challenge in front of him.

Ashmore is faced with the task of taking athletes that are used to winning in football and basketball, and molding them into the kind of players that can be successful on the diamond.

“I have to teach them the way I want them to win in baseball,” Ashmore said.

“That’s my main goal. I think we have kids used to winning. They won the state championship in football, and got far (into the postseason) in basketball, so they have the ability to win and know how to win.”

For Ashmore and his players, developing a familiarity is the first step in the process of building a winning program at Trinity, he said.

“We’re just trying to learn each other,” Ashmore said. “They’re still learning me and I’m still learning them. Being my first year here, I think we’re trying to focus on everything, from what we wear, to how we conduct ourselves, to what people can be put at what position. Basically, everything a coach evaluates early in the year.”

While the potential may be there for Trinity in the long run, there are a lot of things in the short-term that the Saints have to improve at, Ashmore said.

“Our weaknesses are, we have not pitched very well to start the season. We’ve pitched less-than-ordinary. We’ve swung the bats well in some games, and we haven’t swung them well in some games.”

With his Huntington years behind him, Ashmore said he hopes to take what he learned from that experience in order to have the same amount of success at Trinity.

“I coached at Huntington for about 18 years, got out last year and came over here this year,” Ashmore said. “I enjoyed every single year with Huntington baseball. We went to six state championships and built a good program.

“Now, my job is to build a program over here. We have good players and people who want to win. I’m still learning on the job, but I expect nothing but success.”

Trinity (2-3) will play at Briarfield next Tuesday, its first district game of the season.

“We take those games very seriously, it being the ‘second season,’” Ashmore said. “We’ll try to win those and see what we can do.”