The Fountain Hills High School baseball season starts today, Wednesday, Feb. 22, with the Cougar Classic tournament. The Falcons will play four games over four days, and they start by traveling to Scottsdale Christian Academy to play today at 3:30 p.m.

“I think we should be strong this year,” head coach Bob Langer said. “We try to win every game we play. That’s what we try to do.”

The Falcons have around 25 players in total, and Langer will use a flex roster to alternate players between JV and varsity. He used a flex roster last year, and it paid dividends for some freshmen, like Lucas Grieco and Cooper Loyet, who worked their way up and earned all-region honorable mentions at the end of the season.

The Falcons didn’t have many holes to fill on the roster because they only lost two seniors to graduation, Zack Langer and Andrew Lloyd. They have seven seniors this year, and they each come with different levels of experience.

“They can’t play JV so they’re fighting for sports amongst each other, and it’s been a good battle,” Langer said. “We had a really good week of practice last week. It was fun. They played hard and they looked good.”

Seniors Zach Mendello-Gratton and Devyn Hernandez played all of last season, and fellow senior Kyle Biebrich pitched some early last season and is returning. Cy Dethlefs comes with varsity experience from Washington, and he is one of two upperclassmen transfers, along with junior Isiah Challman.

Senior Wyatt Mowers played baseball in middle school and returned to the sport last year. Mowers played on JV as a junior, and the varsity season will be his third sport this year.

Similarly, seniors Alex Fessenden and Tim Lamar returned to baseball this year. The Falcons also have six juniors who played varsity last year, and two more juniors joined their ranks this year. With more than double the upperclassmen on their roster from last year, Langer has high hopes for his team.

“Most of them came out for the fall. They didn’t play the best competition, but they did what they were supposed to do,” Langer said. “They won the games they were supposed to win. It's not a ton of innings in the fall, but I think they became a closer team and I think we can carry that forward. I think they already have carried that forward after the first week.”

Langer said last year wasn’t easy on his players. They lost their first five games and didn’t have a home game for over a month, but they still managed to make a playoff appearance with an 11-14 record. Langer said he’s noticed differences in his team this preseason, and they’re encouraging signs.

“They’re out there busting their butts. I don’t have to push them,” Langer said. “They’re competing, they’re trying to get better, they’re asking questions. It’s just a different feel from last year, where I think a lot of them were young, and a little nervous. Now they’re more confident and I think they’ve just grown.”

Loyet and Grieco weren’t the only ones recognized last year. Ty Langer made the all-region first team and all-conference honorable mention as a sophomore, and he’ll look to lead the team again in hitting. Langer led with a .462 batting average, four home runs and 36 RBIs.

Fellow juniors David Goldapper, Ty Flynn and Nathan Hughes also received honors last year. Flynn was the Falcons’ catcher and he and Goldapper earned all-region second team honors, while Hughes earned an honorable mention.

The majority of the pitching bullpen comes from the junior class. Goldapper, Hughes, fellow junior Lucas Williams and sophomore Aidan Cronican all pitched last year, and the Falcons also have two more upperclassmen pitchers.

“We got [junior] Kyan Taylor back, he took a year off, and the other juniors look really good on the mound,” Bob Langer said. “Cy is another pitcher that threw a little bit in the fall, so looking forward to seeing what he does.”

The Falcons will likely use all of their pitchers in the season-opening tournament this weekend, but when games start getting spaced out later in the season, they’ll likely use fewer pitchers. Langer said no starter was guaranteed their spot from last year, so the players have been pushing themselves and each other every practice.

After starting the season against the reigning 2A state champs Scottsdale Christian Academy, the Falcons play 5A’s Desert Edge on Thursday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m. at Phoenix Christian High School. The Falcons will play their last two games at Thunderbird High School, against 4A’s Sahuarita at 4 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 24, and against 5A’s Paradise Valley at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25.

Next, the Falcons travel to Globe on Monday, Feb. 27, to play at 3:30 p.m. Their first home game will be next Wednesday, March 1, against Valley Christian at 4 p.m. at the middle school.