With league All-Star nods every year, a team championship, the school’s single season strikeout record for a pitcher, and four-year statistics that don’t seem real, Newton Country Day School senior and Belmont resident Sarah Brody has two goals for her final high school season.
One’s more serious: to lead the Falcons to a second straight Eastern Independent League (EIL) title. The other’s a more fun challenge: to play all nine positions in a game during the season. Midway through an undefeated 2025, the primarily right-handed pitcher/first baseman made appearances at every position but catcher. She plans to get behind the plate soon.
“Our team this year has a lot of people with a lot of talents, and it’s not always clear who should go where in the field,” Brody said. “When I’m not pitching, I just try to fit whatever hole needs to be filled, and it just kind of became me going everywhere and trying everything.”
Through the first five games of her senior season, all Newton Country Day wins, the reigning EIL Player of the Year allowed just six earned runs over 24 innings pitched and struck out 32. She also went 13-for-18 at the plate (.722) with 14 runs, 3 doubles, 3 home runs and 12 RBI.
Her career numbers: 25-8, 2.40 ERA across 207 innings pitched with 452 strikeouts. As a batter, Brody’s a career .664 hitter with 23 doubles, 9 home runs, 6 triples, 48 runs and 72 RBI.
The EIL is part of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) and includes 12 schools from Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island. Because there’s no official postseason tournament, winning the regular season means a league title.
“The biggest thing this year is winning the league title and we’re on a good track right now,” Brody said.
Brody, who attended Belmont Public Schools until seventh grade, said she still feels connected with “a big part of the community” because of her older brothers, Matt and Ben, who graduated from Belmont High School, and her many friends in town. A field hockey defender in the fall, Brody played her club softball for the Concord-based Raiders program.
Shortly after Brody enrolled at Newton Country Day as a seventh grader, Varsity Softball Head Coach Evan Adair caught wind of his future superstar. Adair, who also chairs and teaches grades 7-12 in the private girls’ school’s English department, knew of Brody’s talent and looked forward to coaching her at the high school level.
Neither the coach nor the star player knew of her future impact on the program’s overall vitality. Short on numbers ahead of her sophomore year, Brody recruited six other varsity athletes who didn’t have a spring sport to join the softball team. A handful remain starters two years later.
“She just sets a really high bar for everybody on the team,” Adair said. “It’s really inspiring the way that the kids just gravitate towards her. They try to imitate her.”
A National Honor Society student, Brody will continue her softball career at Tufts University as a pitcher. She’s undecided on a major.
Brody began the recruiting process unsure of her college prospects and weighed the idea of dropping softball in favor of pursuing the right academic option. Tufts, which boasts three NCAA Division III national titles, 12 league titles and 22 NCAA tournament appearances, fit in every way.
“They’re a powerhouse in the NESCAC and I’ve actually known Coach [Lauren Ebstein] since I was 10,” Brody said. “I felt very close and at home when I was speaking with her and learning about the school, and the ultimate deciding factor was visiting in March of my junior year … I knew that it was a community and environment that I wanted to be in.”
