The Fountain Hills High School baseball team will play its final regular season game at Scottsdale Christian Academy tomorrow, April 20, at 3:45 p.m., and then they’ll prepare to host the first round of playoffs on Tuesday, May 2, at 4 p.m.

The Falcons lost two games to No. 2 Northwest Christian (12-0) last week and only fell from No. 4 to No. 5 in the rankings. They also beat No. 19 Show Low 8-5 on Saturday, April 15. Not only do the top eight seeds get to host the first round of playoffs, but they also avoid the play-in tournament next week.

The Falcons are 4-3 on the road and 7-2 at home. Those losses came against No. 1 Valley Christian on March 3 and the No. 2 Crusaders last Thursday, April 13. The Falcons thought Valley Christian would have the best pitcher they faced all year, but the aces they faced last week were a little tougher, according to head coach Bob Langer.

Northwest Christian had two players pitch all seven innings in each game last week. Junior Trott Simms allowed one hit and threw five strikeouts on Tuesday, April 11, and then junior Gunnar Penzkover threw eight strikeouts and allowed three hits when the Falcons were at home last Thursday.

The Crusaders average 11.6 runs per game, and their defense only allows 1.6 runs per game. The Falcons struggled to put up any runs of their own, but they held on strong defensively. The Falcons lost 6-0 on the road, and then 4-0 at home.

“They were a good challenge,” Langer said. “They thought the same thing. They really haven’t been challenged. We know they’re a quality program and they know we’re a quality program. We played them tough. We made a couple of errors, and they didn’t.”

The Crusaders had a home run and two triples on six team hits on Tuesday. Junior Lucas Williams allowed five hits and three runs as the starter and threw four strikeouts in 3.2 innings. Fellow juniors Nathan Hughes and David Goldapper threw combined three strikeouts in relief.

Junior Tyler Langer had a single, and was one of two players to reach base on balls. Sophomore Lucas Grieco reached once on error, and the Falcons were a little more successful reaching bases at home.

Langer, junior Tyler Flynn and sophomore Zion Sidhu all hit singles on Thursday. Sidhu is No. 5 in 3A in on base percentage (.656), Langer is No. 9 (.619), and Flynn is fifth on the team at (.464). Langer (19) and Flynn (17) are second and third on the team in total hits behind freshman Jack Irwin, who has 20.

“We just didn’t get enough hits,” Bob Langer said. “We got to hit more. They’re not going to walk people. They’re not going to give us free bases. They’re not going to make errors, so we’ve got to hit better.”

Northwest Christian had a two-run and three-run inning against the Falcons in the first meeting, but they were limited to four one-inning runs on Thursday. The Crusaders’ leadoff hitter had a triple on the first at bat, and he scored on a ground out on the next play, but the Falcons were quick to get the next two outs in response.

Junior Kyan Taylor started for the Falcons, and he left the game because of an injury in the third inning. Taylor is No. 22 in ERA in 3A (2.21), and the Falcons will take his injury day-by-day until the playoffs start.

The Falcons have the luxury of a deep bullpen. Taylor leads the Falcons with 36 strikeouts thrown and Goldapper is right behind him with 34. Williams is third with 22, and Hughes has 17 strikeouts.

Senior Kyle Biebrich has an ERA of 1.7 and senior Cy Dethlefs has a .840 ERA, but neither have enough pitches to qualify as a conference stat leader. Both of them have thrown 14 strikeouts this year, and sophomore Aiden Cronican has thrown 11 strikeouts.

Biebrich and Dethlefs started the game with three combined strikeouts and four runs allowed over the first two innings. Hughes came in for the third time in the week and closed the game with 11 strikeouts in five innings. Hughes only allowed one run and the Falcons came back from down 4-0 to win 8-5.

Langer also hit his fifth home run of the season against Show Low.

Hughes is a leadoff hitter and Langer wanted him to find his swing this season before he got on the mound. Hughes is fourth on the team in hits (12) and fourth in runs scored (15).

The Falcons hosted No. 9 Scottsdale Christian Academy on Monday, April 17, and they travel to face the Eagles tomorrow, April 20.

The Falcons lost to the reigning 2A state champions 16-1 in the Cougar Classic Tournament at the beginning of the season, but at least five current starters weren’t available to play then. The Falcons will have a different roster and mentality when they face Scottsdale Christian this week.

“We didn’t have our wrestlers, they had only one practice because of the rain,” Langer said. “Our wrestlers are a pretty big part of the program and the basketball players; we didn’t have them. We’re a completely different team. I expect us to come out and play well.”