The Fountain Hills High School baseball season begins tomorrow in the Cougar Classic Baseball Tournament. On Thursday, Feb. 24, the Falcons play at Shadow Mountain at 3:30 p.m. and on Friday, the Falcons play Paradise Honors at Bourgade Catholic at 1 p.m. This Saturday, the Falcons play Scottsdale Christian at Scottsdale Christian at 10 a.m.

The Falcons hope to start this season better than last year, but they know they are capable of a late-season push if needed. Last year, the Falcons were 3-6 from March to early April, and then they won seven of their last eight regular season games and reached the state semifinals. According to head coach Bobby Langer, the Falcons were out of practice after a year off from COVID, but they played excellent defense and had fantastic pitching in the second half of the season.

The Falcons have a different challenge at the start of this season. Instead of knocking the rust off, the Falcons have to replace nine seniors. Eight of those nine seniors were region superlative winners, and five of them were first team selections.

“We have a strong freshman, strong sophomore class, and then we’re thin on the juniors and seniors,” Langer said. “You’re going to see some freshmen play. Usually, I think we’ve had one freshman up in my two years, but I could see a couple of freshmen challenging to be up this year.”

“We’ve had a club here, so a lot of these guys I’m familiar with,” Langer continued. “We’ve been working with them since they were young and we’ve got a lot of guys who can fill in. They’re all going to get a shot, it’s just going to be a question of who can step up and play.”

Langer has been the head varsity coach for two years, but he’s been with the program for eight years. He had 28 players show up to tryouts this year, but he said they only have three seniors and three juniors. The two top returners, Zack Langer and Andy Lloyd, will have their hands full this season, but they aren’t backing away from the challenge.

“I feel confident it’s going to come together,” senior Zack Langer said. “We’re going to definitely need some work because that grade had a lot of talent last year, but I know these guys are working hard and we’ll be able to bounce back.”

Langer was named the co-defensive player of the region as a junior last year, but the shortstop is an offensive weapon, too. Langer had the highest batting average on the Falcons last year, and he was one of three players to hit above .400. Langer’s average was .429, his on base percentage was .528, and he had 17 RBIs and 18 runs on 24 hits.

Lloyd was a junior last year, and a second team all-region selection. Lloyd’s batting average was .378., and he had 17 hits, seven runs, six RBIs and an on base percentage of .420.

Ty Langer and Nathan Hughes had the most batting experience of the freshmen last year. Hughes’ batting average was .182, and he earned seven runs and one RBI on two hits. Ty Langer’s average was .250, and he had 10 runs and five RBIs on eight hits. Langer also received an honorable mention nod for region superlatives as a freshman.

“Andy Lloyd, for sure, watch out for him,” Zack Langer said. “[Sophomore] Kyan Taylor, he’s at third base, and he’s going to be one of our best pitchers. I’m pretty excited to see what Cooper [Loyet] can do at the plate. He’s a freshman, but he's got a lot of heart. My brother, too, I know [Ty’s] going to put in his all. He knows it’s my last year and he's going to try his hardest, so I’m hyped about that.”

All three Langers and the rest of the Falcons would love to win Fountain Hills’ fifth baseball state championship title and first since 2013 this year, but they have a lot of work to do before the postseason begins in May. In that time, Bob Langer will try to put together the best lineup he can with all the new pieces available to him. He will move players from JV to Varsity and vice versa, and all the while, the Falcons will sharpen their skills in practice.

“No expectations yet, it’s a little early,” Zack Langer said. “I think the group we have, they work hard, they want to put in the work and right now everyone is super consistent, and everyone is hustling, so it looks good.”