Blair Baseball and Softball Teams Building for Postseason

SOFTBALL

Blair softball coach Louis Hoelman and his players still get a bitter taste in their mouths when they think back to last year’s playoffs.

Despite entering the postseason with aspirations of capturing the school’s first ever regional championship, the Blazers suffered what Hoelman described as a “heartbreaking”, 3-1, loss to Walter Johnson, a team they had beaten twice during the regular season, in just the second round of the Class 4A West playoffs.

But with all but two starters back from last season, Hoelman believes this year’s team has all the tools to not only avenge last season’s disappointing finish but to also make a serious run at that elusive first regional title.

“We’re really hungry this year,” Hoelman said. “We have very high expectations. One [area] where we’re better this year than we were last year is our mental approach to the game. We’ve learned from what happened last year and we’re treating every game as if it’s our most important.”

So far, the new approach appears to be paying off as Blair has won 11 of its first 12 games to start the year.

Prior to their 4-0 loss to Sherwood Apr. 8, the Blazers had outscored their first seven opponents by a combined 59-5. Eight of their 11 wins have come by margins or seven runs or more.

Senior pitcher Eve Brown, a talented control specialist, was 4-1 with a 0.78 ERA heading into last week while junior Sam Schweickhardt, an overpowering strikeout artist, was 3-0 with a 1.00 ERA.

Offensively, meanwhile, Blair had six players – Molly Nicholson (.476), Becca Arbacher (.450), Blake Morgan-Gamber (.429), Schweickhardt (.423), Brown (.421) and Emily Haislip (.407) - each batting above .400 to start last week. Haislip, a senior catcher, led the team at that point with 11 RBI while Morgan-Gamber and Nicholson had each recorded eight.

“Our goal is to win the region and get into the state championship,” Hoelman said. “And I really think that this year, more than any other year, we believe in ourselves and we believe in ourselves as a team. And I think if we continue to do that, that we’re going to continue to be successful.”

BASEBALL

For the Blazers’ baseball team, meanwhile, it’s been a complete reversal of fortunes during the past several weeks.

After winning two of its first three games, Blair dropped five in a row, but now finds itself in the midst of a seven-game winning streak.

The Blazers (9-6) defeated both Seneca Valley (7-2) and Walter Johnson (8-2) in a home double-header Monday afternoon.

During the winning streak, they’ve outscored their opponents by a combined 89-18. They swept Northwood (19-3) and Wheaton (20-1) during a home double-header last Friday after beating Blake (8-2), Poolesville (14-2) and Springbrook (13-6) earlier in the week.

“We’re playing with a little more confidence and a little more swagger,” Blair coach John MacDonald said. “When we weren’t winning, we were leaving a lot of guys on base, and not coming through with big hits, but that’s not the case now. We’re playing with more offensive confidence, getting big hits and scoring a lot of runs.”

During the winning streak, the Blazers have raised their team average more than 80 points and entered Monday hitting .312 as a team.

Tucker Canary, Peirce Marston, Lucas Babinec, Ben Buchholz, Nevin Brown, Tray Brown and Chris Z-Freeman are all hitting .300 or better. Canary leads the team with a .471 average. Babinec, meanwhile, batted .516 last year, a school-record. Brown, a shortstop, entered Monday leading Blair in both extra-base hits (7) and RBI (12).

But MacDonald has also been extremely pleased with Blair’s pitching.

Buchholz, Britton Smith, Neil Gahart and Marston all earned wins in the four games leading up to Monday while allowing no more than three runs during any of their starts. Buchholz, who owns a team-best 0.58 ERA, tossed a complete-game two-hitter, yielding just one run, in the Blazers’ win against Wheaton last Friday.

Marston, who MacDonald referred to as the anchor of Blair’s pitching staff, limited Blake to just two unearned runs on three hits in the Blazers’ win last Thursday. He has posted a 9-9 record during his Blair career.

The Blazers are in search of their first winning season since 2005.

“I do think [a winning record] is within reach,” MacDonald said. “I just hope that we continue to play. And if we do, I think the record will take care of itself.”