The Fountain Hills High School baseball team started the season with the Cougar Classic tournament last week. The Falcon’s went 0-4, but they improved over the tournament and are ready for three home games this week.

The Falcons didn’t have the best start to their season, and they were up against one of the tougher opponents they’ll face all year. The Falcons’ new region opponent and reigning 2A state champions, Scottsdale Christian Academy, beat them 16-1 in four innings.

“They got their heads pounded in the sand the first game, and they reacted to it,” head coach Bob Langer said. “They got pushed a little bit. Those are four good teams.”

The Falcons played better in their next game against 5A’s Desert Edge, but fell 5-1. The Falcons played much better on Friday and Saturday and had chances to win both of those games.

The Falcons lost 5-3 to 4A’s Sahuarita on Friday, Feb. 24. Fountain Hills allowed three runs in the first inning but tightened up their defense in the later innings. The Falcons had a chance late with loaded bases, but they didn’t get the hit they needed. Their offense has yet to come together completely, but their pitching did get better in each player’s second outing.

“[David] Goldapper and [Kyan] Taylor threw excellent on Saturday, and that was Kyan’s first game,” Langer said. “That was his first outing in probably two years because he didn’t play with us last year.”

Taylor and Goldapper combined for 12 strikeouts against 5A’s Paradise Valley on Saturday, Feb. 25. Taylor started on the mound and pitched four innings, six strikeouts and allowed two hits and two runs. Goldapper threw six strikeouts in two innings and didn’t allow a hit.

The Falcons struggled against Paradise Valley’s pitching, too, and junior Isaiah Challman had the only hit for the Falcons. The Falcons lost 2-1 to close out the weekend 0-4.

“Our bats need to come alive, period. We need to play better defense,” Langer said. “We made physical errors, that’s going to happen, but we can’t be making mental errors on top of that. Whether its in the field or on the bases, that can’t happen.”

The players made defensive mistakes that can be corrected in practice, and they’ll have to prepare for a great pitcher later this week. There are at least seven Falcon pitchers fighting for playing time, and they might switch to JV just to have innings to pitch.

“You’ll have bad outings, but it’s about correcting mistakes and not walking people, challenging hitters, and our defense playing the defense we can play. We haven’t played that yet,” Langer said. “We’re not far at all because we can execute in practice. We just need to execute in the games. We were close, maybe a little nervous in the first week.”

The Falcons have three home games this week that are all apart of a six-game home stretch from Monday, Feb. 27, to Monday, March 20. The Falcons hosted Globe this past Monday, Feb. 27, after press time, and they face Valley Christian today, Wednesday, March 1, at 4 p.m.

“We’re probably going to see one of the best pitchers of the year that we’re going to face, and one of the best teams,” Langer said of Valley Christian. “It's going to be a challenge…We definitely want to play them because they’re a good team.”

This Thursday, March 2, the Falcons host American Leadership Academy – Anthem South at 3:45 p.m. The Falcons haven’t played Globe or Anthem South in recent years, and they should be good chances to improve.

All home baseball games are held at Fountain Hills Middle School.