Things got off to a sluggish start for the Fountain Hills High School softball team but quickly turned around once the local ladies got that first win under their belt.

The Falcons’ first game this past week was against Northwest Christian on Feb. 25. FHHS lost the game 11-3 but, the next day, Fountain Hills faced San Tan Foothills and won 21-9.

Heading into the weekend with this win, the Lady Falcons won all four of their tournament games on March 1 and 2.

On that Friday, FHHS beat Horizon honors 10-2 and then beat Mogollon 14-9.

The next day the Lady Falcons beat Desert Christian 10-2 and Parker 8-5.

Fountain Hills has two games this week. The first is a home game Thursday, March 7, against Odyssey Institute starting at 3:45 p.m.

The next game will be away for the Falcons as they head up north to take on Payson on March 8.

Northwest

Going into their only loss of last week, head coach Randy Bragg said that the team might have been a little overconfident while getting ready to take on Northwest Christian.

“We also had a bad practice the night before,” Bragg said. “That’s not to say I am not to blame, I am a part of running a smooth practice. So we just didn’t really go into the game on a good foot.”

One positive Bragg found from the night was that his team continued to battle even when they were trailing by a sound margin.

“After the game I remember talking to them,” Bragg said. “I said, ‘Hey, you didn’t give up, you kept battling.’ And we all agreed that we need to have some better practices.”

San Tan Foothills

The Lady Falcons were able to make much more contact in their next game against San Tan Foothills and solid pitching from Sophia Buckley ensured a win for the local squad.

Olivia Swipiarski was 3 for 4 at the plate that game with five RBIs and Sydney Loyet, along with her strong showing at shortstop, had two stolen bases.

“It was good, obviously to get a win under our belt,” Bragg said. “I felt they did really well offensively against a tough opponent.”

Tournament

Bragg could tell that his girls were hopped-up going into the weekend tournament after a big win but he was happy to see that they executed on the field just as well as they had against San Tan.

“Both days, hitting was strong,” Bragg said. “Gabbi Coughlin had six RBIs in the game against Mogollon and Zooey Lipps had two more in the Parker game.”

One thing that Bragg learned during the weekend and wants to fix is the team’s tendency to relax.

“We would have a good first and second inning where we jumped out on them,” Bragg said. “Then we kind of sat back flatfooted and that’s when errors started.”

Bragg hopes that by expanding his coaching staff he will be able to work out those little errors.