Northwestern Lehigh and Palmerton have developed one of the better rivalries in local softball.

Lately, the Lady Tigers have added a wrinkle to the rivalry when they not only won both regular season games against the Bombers but celebrated a milestone in each win.

In a 9-4 win over Palmerton, senior catcher Abby Dunstan doubled and homered for Northwestern. The performance gave her 152 hits in her high school career, moving her ahead of Izzy Akelaitis who collected 151 while at Northwestern.

Last week, the Tigers beat Palmerton 4-3 and coach Kate Farber collected her 100th win as a high school coach. The win total goes back to her time at Northern Lehigh.

Dunstan, who will play softball at Georgia Tech next season, recently homered in six straight games, including the win over Palmerton. Since resetting the record, Dunstan has collected five more hits to put her at 157 hits for her career.

Akelaitis is currently a sophomore at Elizabethtown College, majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. She is getting plenty of playing time as a catcher for the Blue Jays and recently hit her first college home run.

“It was a goal I set for myself after seeing Izzy become the all-time leader,” said Dunstan, who was a sophomore when Akelaitis was a senior at Northwestern. “I knew I was on track to break it, but I knew I was going to have to really work to get there. I have always just kept up with my work and doing what I normally do in the offseason and playing travel ball.”

Focusing on softball became an early pursuit for Dunstan, who always envisioned herself playing Division 1 softball. She gave up playing other sports when she was younger because of her love for softball and the desire to play not just in high school, but on tournament teams and other opportunities.

While she knew she had a shot, Dunstan was far from fixating on reaching the goal. In fact, she forgot about it for a while.

“I knew I was close to 150, but I forgot about the record for a while,” she said. “I think that was good though because it kept me stress free. I realized it when I was one away, but I tried not to focus on it and kind of just let it happen.”

Farber had no clue about how many wins she had as a high school coach. It took doing some digging with current Northwestern pitcher and infielder Emma Freeman to put together the numbers.

“The girls had asked me a couple months ago, and to be honest, I didn’t know,” said Farber. “Emma and I started looking at it and we thought it might be within the realm of getting close to 100 wins, and actually, I was.”

When she got the win against Palmerton, she was so excited about how well the team played and getting the big win that she again hadn’t thought about it. The team had to come from behind to get the win and their success in that moment was where Farber’s thoughts were.

“They came out with a sign and I was instantly emotional,” said Farber, “ because it just wasn’t even on my mind. That was a big game and a big win; they’re a great team. I just got locked in on that and didn’t think about anything else.”

Farber is focused now on the postseason and pulling together championships in both the Colonial League and District 11. Then, she and her team – especially the seniors – will focus on states and getting into the state championship game. They reached the semifinals in each of the past three seasons but couldn’t take that next step.

“I don’t take credit for these things. It’s all the girls,” said Farber. “They’re the ones who do the work and put in the time and energy. I’m more excited by their accomplishments than anything else.”