Blair Academy softball is off to a hot start, winning their first three, beginning with a 7-3 win over the Peddie School on March 29th.
They followed up on that with a double-header sweep of Mercerburg Academy, 12-1 and 10-0.
“We’re pretty happy,” Coach Nadia Abascal said after the Peddie game. “We were very strong in our outfield.”
Abascal said the team’s discipline has had an impact, pointing to the rare errors on defense, numbering four over the first three games.
Pitcher Mallory Allen struck out four over no-hit innings, and Faith Allen pitched three innings, striking out four and giving up three runs.
At the plate, Faye Allen had three hits as did Caroline Carr-Smith and Kiara Garriques, who also had three RBIs.
Abascal credited the fast start to the cohesiveness of the team that has developed during the past few seasons.
“For the past couple years, we’ve been building,” she said. “This is really like a three-year-old team right now that has really crystallized its strength. They kind of all grew up together.”
In her second season as head coach, Abascal is a chemistry teacher at Blair. A graduate of Barnard College, she earned her master’s and PhD at Yale University, where she did post-doctoral research in Yale’s molecular biophysics and biochemistry department.
Joe Phalon, Contributing Writer
Joe was lured out of retirement by the opportunity to be a part of the Ridge View Echo. During a decades-long career in publishing and journalism, he has covered government on many levels from local school boards to the United States Supreme Court.
Along the way, Joe has worked at American Lawyer Magazine, The National Law Journal and The Record among other publications, and as the Press Officer of Columbia Law School. His work has been recognized with several first place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the New Jersey Press Association.
Being part of the Ridge View Echo brings Joe back to his roots and the kind of news coverage he loves: Telling the stories of people and local communities as well as keeping an eye on how their money is spent by their government officials.
Joe lives in Blairstown with his wife Rose, the founder of Quilting for a Cause, and their two wiener dogs. He is an artist in his spare time.
