The Fountain Hills High School softball team started its 2020 season with a tough game against Snowflake.

On Feb. 26 the Lady Falcons traveled north to Snowflake where they lost to the Lobos, 4-1.

Fountain Hills softball has five games this week on their schedule. The first was on Monday, March 2. The game was away against Northwest Christian.

The next four games are a part of the Desert Classic tournament at Fountain Hills Middle School.

The Lady Falcons have two games on March 6. The first is against Horizon Honors at 10 a.m. and the second is against Mogollon at 2 p.m.

Then, on March 7, FHHS has two more games at the middle school. The Lady Falcons will take on Valley Christian at 10 a.m. and then Parker at 2 p.m.

Going into this game against Snowflake head coach Randy Bragg said that he and his team expected a tough battle from last year’s state runner-up.

“We talked before the game about how we can’t give them anything,” Bragg said. “Because, if we do, they will capitalize on any mistake we make. The mistakes were much less this year compared to last year, when they run-ruled us.”

The Lady Falcons, led by Sophia Buckley on the mound, were able to keep the Lobos scoreless for the first few innings and even got some chances to jump ahead.

“In the third inning we had bases loaded with one out,” Bragg said. “It’s 0-0 and we are in the middle of our lineup, but one struck out and the other out was an easy ground ball.”

Snowflake came back the next inning to hit back to back doubles that earned them two runs. Later in the game an error from the Falcons’ outfield gave the Lobos their final two runs.

While the results on the scoreboard might not be what he wanted, Bragg said he is encouraged by his team’s performance.

“At the end of the game the girls were positive, no one was hanging their heads,” Bragg said. “They knew they played a really good team and that they played a really good game.”