When you try pushing through blocks, your face can distort or as you put it “look gross”. Build the habit of not pushing through blocks. Let go of the need to say the word and surrender. Relax, take a breathe or sigh to release tension in your upper body. After that you could try other methods of saying the word without it resulting in pushing it out. I would try to spell the word. This works some of the time. You could also try taking an normal relaxed inhale and try speaking on the exhale, using as little effort to say the sound. You could also try bouncing the problem sound. So instead of blocking on it, you intentionally repeat the sound like in a slow/normal controlled steady manner b-b-b baseball or c-c-c-c could. You could also bounce a sound that happens in the middle of the word. Make sure you start over the phrase or sentence you were trying to say before bouncing. You want to build a steady momentum or rhythm.