Opening day could have gone better for the Blair Academy baseball team, which lost to the hands of long-time rival, the Peddie School of Hightstown, on March 27.
The 10-0 loss kicked off a multi-game losing streak for the Bucs, but Coach Joe Wagner said he feels optimistic that the team will begin clicking.
“Yeah, this is not the result we wanted and we’re just going to improve from here,” Wagner said. “We learned some things and we’ve got a lot of work to do in practice.”
Peddie’s starting pitcher Caleb Chou-Green served up just one hit to the Bucs with six strikeouts over five innings.
“We have to execute,” Wagner said. “We have to hit the ball better.”
Wagner is returning to the Bucs after a 3-15 season in 2022, when baseball resumed after two years off as a result of Covid-19. He was a four-year varsity pitcher for Hamilton College, where he earned his BA in biology. He received his advanced master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2020.
He joined the Blair faculty in 2014. He teaches biology honors and AP biology.
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.
