The Fountain Hills High School baseball team beat Payson (2-5) 19-1 on Monday, March 6, and then won 2-0 in a pitcher’s duel on Wednesday, March 8. The Falcons are 4-1 in nontournament games, and they start the region schedule after spring break.

Anytime they beat Payson, it’s a good day for the Falcons. The Falcons scored five runs in the first and four in the second, and they exploded with 10 runs in the third inning.

“As a team, I think we were really connected,” senior Tim Lamar said. “Our heads were in the game. We put the ball in play. Good defense, good offense, it was just good overall.”

Lamar had one RBI and a stolen base against Payson. He spent the last three years on the Fountain Hills track team and is the first base runner to get substituted for junior catcher Ty Flynn this year. Lamar currently is tied for the team lead in stolen bases, and he gets to bat himself when the Falcons take a huge lead.

Flynn had three RBIs against Payson, as did two other Falcons. Sophomore Aiden Cronican had three RBIs, and junior Ty Langer was walked three times but got three RBIs on his triple hit. Sophomore Cooper Loyet had two RBIs, and so did freshmen Jack Irwin.

Junior Lucas Williams pitched three innings as the starting pitcher, and only allowed two hits. He pitched three strikeouts, and senior Cy Dethlefs pitched two strikeouts in relief.

The Falcons had 10 hits total and the Longhorns tried a new pitcher each inning because they had no answers for the Falcon’s hitting.

“It builds confidence, but we can’t get overconfident,” Lamar said. “We have to stay focused and just get ready for each game and prepare like it’s a big deal, because it’s a big deal.”

The Falcons came ready for their final game before spring break, but the win came in a more stressful fashion. After scoring 12 or more runs in three of their past four games, the Falcons beat Scottsdale Prep (1-1) 2-0.

Junior Nathan Hughes scored off a Cronican single in the first inning, and sophomore Eli Johnson scored on a walk right afterwards. Senior Devyn Hernandez started the second inning off with a triple, but that would be the last hit from either team.

“They came ready to play. We did, too, we just couldn’t get our bats going,” senior Zach Mendello-Gratton said. “It was just a really good pitcher dual. Our pitchers played amazing, didn’t really allow any hits. Their pitcher did great after the first inning. It really wasn’t anything new that we hadn’t seen before, we just had our off day.”

Junior Kyan Taylor started for the Falcons, throwing five strikeouts in three innings. He allowed one hit, and Cronican didn’t allow a hit in his four innings pitching. Cronican also threw seven strikeouts in relief.

The Falcons allowed three walks total and showed control on the mound. The pitchers answered the call when the team needed them, but it also gave the team motivation to work over spring break.

“It was good, but it could’ve been better,” Lamar said. “We put the ball in play kind of, but we should’ve had more hits and more runners on base because we are definitely better than we showed.”

The Falcons scored 59 runs in the four games before Scottsdale Prep. Flynn and Langer are leading the team in several categories like they did last year as sophomores, and Irwin continues to make noise as a freshman. Irwin is currently leading the team with nine hits and nine RBIs, and he’s only struck out once in eight games played.

The Falcons will have some practices over the break for athletes that stayed in town, and they return to action next Monday, March 20. The Falcons hosted region opponent Chino Valley (1-2) on Monday and then traveled to American Leadership Academy – Ironwood (2-4) on Tuesday, March 21.