The Fountain Hills High School varsity baseball team improved to 11-5 this week and extended their win streak to nine in a row. The No. 5 Falcons beat Wickenburg twice, 14-8 and 14-3, and they finished the season series with Chino Valley with a 7-4 win.

Monday’s game was very windy, and the Falcons took a few innings to gain the lead. According to Willy Weather, there were 35.7 mph gusts of wind that kicked up dust and caused problems early for the Falcons. The Falcons sealed the 14-8 win with two home runs in the sixth inning from juniors Nathan Hughes and Tyler Langer.

“We hit the same one, literally the same exact hit,” Langer said. “I’m going to be honest; I don’t think either of them would’ve gone out without the wind, but [Hughes] barreled that ball. He crushed it, that was the hardest ball he’s hit this season.”

It was Hughes’ first home run, and Langer’s second of the season. The Falcons were up 9-4 after four runs scored in the fourth inning, and the two home runs silenced Wickenburg’s three run inning in the top of the fifth.

Sophomore Zion Sidhu led the team with three hits, and he tied freshman Jack Irwin and senior Zach Mendello with three runs scored. Five other Falcons had multiple hits, Mendello had a single and a triple, and senior Devyn Hernandez had a single, a double and an RBI.

Langer led with four RBIs, and sophomore Eli Johnson and junior Tyler Flynn had two RBIs each. Juniors Kyan Taylor and David Goldapper each threw two strikeouts, and sophomore Aidan Cronican threw four strikeouts in four innings.

The Falcons were on alert and avoided falling into a trap against the Wranglers. Wickenburg has one win this season, and the Falcons took care of business on the road on Thursday, April 6. The Falcons didn’t get ahead of themselves, and they took care of the little things on route to winning 14-3 in five innings.

“Thursday was mainly the trap game, because we had already beaten them and they had nothing to lose going into that game,” sophomore Cooper Loyet said. “They had a terrible record, so they’re going into that game, just going crazy, and that was the game where we really took advantage of it and hit really well.”

Wickenburg led 3-2 after the third inning, but the Falcons scored three runs in the fourth and nine runs in the fifth inning to end the game. The Falcons didn’t have any big hits, but they had four singles and four walks in the fifth. They also had two other players walk because they were hit by the pitch, and Mendello hit a two run double at the end to secure the victory.

“I feel like the coaches always say our approach is just jump on them when they’re vulnerable,” Langer said. “That’s exactly what we did that inning.”

Goldapper, junior Lucas Williams and senior Cy Dethlefs allowed only one hit in five innings. They combined for five walks, three strikeouts and zero errors. Loyet and Irwin played good defense, and each had a double play.

Loyet and junior Isaiah Challman were the only Falcons with two hits, and both had two RBIs along with Mendello. The Falcons took their time on the plate and earned seven walks compared to only three strikeouts.

The Falcons edged out a 4-3 victory over No. 26 Chino Valley (5-8) earlier this season on the Monday they returned from spring break. The Falcons had a 1-3 record against the Cougars over the past two years, and Langer said the Falcons never play well over there, but the Falcons won on the road this past weekend, 7-4.

The Falcons went up 4-0 in the second inning thanks to a two run double from Loyet and another double from Challman. Loyet scored on a wild pitch when Challman was up to bat, and the Cougars only scored one run to retaliate in the next inning.

Langer put the Falcons up 5-1 with his second home run of the week, and then Chino Valley responded with a triple and their own home run on the next at bat. The Falcons were only up 5-4, but they answered back and added another run in the fifth and sixth innings each to win.

The Falcons say that having a short memory is key for big momentum swings. Earlier in the season, the Falcons were up 5-2 on No. 1 Valley Christian after three innings, but they were outscored 10-2 in the last four innings because they couldn’t keep their minds off what they thought was a bad call.

The Falcons have grown as a team since the Valley Christian game on March 3. They hope to continue their win streak and take the lessons from that game and apply them against No. 2 Northwest Christian this week.

“I feel like the rest of the game, we blamed the entire game on a bad call instead of just playing,” Langer said. “If we put up five or six runs in the first two innings, then we need to keep doing that. One bad call shouldn’t change that, so I think we need to just, like we said short memory, if something happens, go out there and score again. Just keep being better.”

The Falcons went on the road to face the reigning champs, Northwest Christian (10-0) yesterday, Tuesday, April 11, and they host the Crusaders tomorrow, Thursday, April 13, at 3:45 p.m. The Falcons also host No. 22 Show Low this Saturday, April 15, at 4 p.m. and No. 11 Scottsdale Christian next Monday, April 17, at 3:45 p.m.