To say Taylor Blair is the heart and soul of the Carondelet softball team would be an understatement. The junior pitched every inning of every game, except the second game of a tournament doubleheader, and led the Cougars with a .455 batting average.

As a result of her outstanding year, Blair has been named the Prep2Prep North Coast Section Junior of the Year.

Leading by example and deeds is what made Blair stand out for first-year Carondelet head coach Ron Hunt.

“Taylor is a natural leader, she enjoys being a leader,” Hunt said. “She is the best leader on the softball field I’ve ever coached in my 15 years.

“She takes the team under her wing and leads them, she’s an extremely hard worker and it rubs off on the rest of the team.”

Hunt said Blair improved her mound presence this season and became a more complete pitcher

“I think she became more of a cerebral pitcher this year,” Hunt explained. “You can’t just throw fastballs and rise balls and get everybody out, it worked well for her to change things up a little bit.

“Taylor thought more about strategy, thought more about how to hit to certain situations.”

Blair pitched 194 innings, earning a 15-12 record with a 2.56 ERA. She recorded 181 strikeouts. At the plate, Blair notched 12 doubles, 23 RBI and scored 22 runs.

Her battery-mate behind the plate was sister Sierra, and their connection was one Hunt could trust.

“In the past I would call the game, but in the pre-season I got to trust Sierra and saw she handled the situations well I allowed her to call pitches,” Hunt said.

The Blair sisters are committed to Arizona State.

Hunt thinks Blair will continue to work on mental preparation this off-season, using different pitches in different situations and work on keeping the ball down.

Carondelet had a 15-13 overall record, and went 6-8 in the ultra-competitive EBAL, after going 3-11 in 2013.

The Cougars led the nation’s top-ranked team, Amador Valley, 2-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh. But a Carondelet error opened the door for an Amador comeback and the Cougars lost 4-3 in extra innings.

Blair and her teammates showed their record was not an indication of thier strength and a playoff run ended with a loss in the NCS Division II championship game to Alhambra (Martinez).

Also considered: Joelle Krist, Petaluma; Taylor Zehr, Granada; Lani Kaleikini, Redwood.

NOTE: We would like to thank our readers for all of the nominations you sent in for the season-ending NCS softball awards. It is a daunting task to narrow down our selections to just the top few as we recognize there are lots of great players who make contributions on the diamond that are not necessarily well-documented but mean a great deal to the success of their teams. We salute all of the players that have made this a wonderful season of NCS softball.