The Fountain Hills High School varsity baseball team hosted No. 14 ALA – Ironwood (8-9) in the first round of state playoffs after press time Tuesday, May 2. If they advance, the No. 3 Falcons (14-3) will host the second round on Saturday, May 6, at 2 p.m.

This is the first time the Falcons have had a bye through the play-in tournament under head coach Bob Langer, and they’ve never been a top-four seed with the chance to host the first two rounds. The Falcons are in uncharted territory this postseason, but the players continue to treat everything this year like their normal business.

The Falcons didn’t do anything special to get to where they are, they just worked hard. They were ranked No. 21 and went 8-9 last year, and then they started this season 0-4 in the Cougar Classic Tournament. The Falcons had their work cut out for them, and they became better for it.

“We worked hard every practice and every game, and we worked on the stuff we did bad in games in practices, and we got that stuff down,” senior Zach Mendello-Gratton said. “We don’t go into games thinking we will lose. Every game we went into, it with confidence and [we] kept saying that we can win.”

Mendello-Gratton saw his statistics jump up big time this year. His batting average went from .298 to leading the team at .500, and he only had two strikeouts all season compared to 13 his junior season. Most Falcons saw big improvements this year, and a majority of the players are still in their first two years with the program.

Mendello-Gratton said he and his teammates knew this would be a good year, but they didn’t track their progress with midseason celebrations. The Falcons didn’t lose a game for over a month and won nine in a row between March 6 and April 8, but they still showed up to practice every day, even over spring break, during that stretch of time.

“We just didn’t really focus on where we were going to place,” junior Nathan Hughes said. “We try and do our job and win games and play hard.”

The Falcons went about their business every time they traveled or hosted a game, and they only had trouble with the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the state. The Falcons lost 12-7 to No. 1 Valley Christian (17-0) on March 3, and No. 2 Northwest Christian (17-0) swept Fountain Hills in the two-game region series this year.

The Falcons could see Northwest Christian again in the semifinals, and the only potential rematch with Valley Christian would be a state championship showdown on Monday, May 15.

Five of the Falcons’ opponents were ranked in the bottom 15 of 3A. The players and coaches called them “trap games,” because they could have easily lost if they weren’t mentally prepared. According to his teammates, junior Tyler Langer led a player huddle before every game to make sure everyone was locked in and giving their all.

“We tried to never get ahead of ourselves,” Langer said. “We always wanted to bring the same game whether we played teams like Valley [Christian] and Northwest [Christian], or if we played teams with horrible records.”

“That’s kind of just a reminder for us to play hard,” Langer continued about the team huddles. “Our game comes from being a team and while we have captains, I think our success comes mostly from backing each other up on both offense and defense and playing the Falcons’ game.”

The Falcons will be challenged in each round of the playoffs, but they are familiar with ALA – Ironwood and have experience winning close games this year. They beat 2A’s No. 8 team, Scottsdale Prep (14-5) 2-0 on March 8, and they beat ALA – Ironwood 8-0 on March 21.

In their first meeting, the Falcons went on the road and rode the pitching hot hand from juniors Kyan Taylor and David Goldapper to win. They combined for 15 strikeouts and only allowed three hits compared to eight hits from the Falcons. Taylor will likely be unavailable for the playoffs, but Goldapper struck out seven of nine batters faced in just over two innings.

After the second round this weekend, the final four teams left in the state playoffs will play in a best of three semi-finals series at the Goodyear Baseball Complex. The first semi-finals would be next Tuesday, May 9, at 6 p.m., and then the second game would be Thursday, May 11, at 6 p.m. If a third game is necessary, the final semi-finals round will be Saturday, May 13, at 6 p.m.

If the Falcons beat ALA – Ironwood and advance into the second round, they will play the winner of No. 6 River Valley (12-3) and No. 11 Florence (12-5). For results and tickets, visit azpreps365.com/teams/baseball/1683-ftn-hills/160522-varsity.