Things started off rough for Fountain Hills High School softball in the team’s first two games back from spring break, but the team’s fortune turned at the Chandler Prep tournament.

The Lady Falcons’ first game last week was on March 19, a rematch against Payson. FHHS lost the game 8-0.

On March 20, Fountain Hills played Pusch Ridge Christian Academy and lost again, 11-0.

On March 22 the Lady Falcons played their first two games of the Chandler Prep tournament against Mohave Accelerated and Arizona Lutheran. FHHS beat Mohave 14-11 and Arizona Lutheran 14-4.

The next day of the tournament, March 23, FHHS played Mogollon and Valley Union. The Lady Falcons beat Mogollon 12-7 but lost to Valley Union 10-7 to secure second place in the tournament.

Fountain Hills softball has two home games this week. The first was yesterday, March 26, against Gilbert Christian,

The final game of the week is on Thursday, March 28, against Coronado starting at 3:45 p.m.

Payson

The Falcons’ game against Payson highlighted an area of play that head coach Randy Bragg knows the team struggles with.

“We could only scrap out one hit against (Payson),” Bragg said. “The Payson pitcher is younger but she is dominant. Those are things we just have to get better at; how to adjust to that kind of hitting because, until we learn that, we are always going to be fighting an uphill battle.”

Bragg is focusing whole practices on hitting now to help his team reach a level where they can adjust to all types of pitching styles on the fly.

One bright spot in this game was the pitching from Sophia Buckley.

“Sophia didn’t allow any homeruns,” Bragg said. “Last time we played them they had two huge homeruns.”

Pusch Ridge

The Lady Falcons ended up getting run ruled by Pusch Ridge, which Bragg describes as one of the best in the division.

“They are just a solid team,” Bragg said. “One through nine, you could tell that they were all club players and they were extremely disciplined in everything they did.”

The Lady Falcons once again were only able to manage one hit off Pusch Ridge, a double by Sydney Loyet.

After the game Bragg took the team aside to talk about putting the first half of their season behind them.

“I told them when I looked at our schedule, I looked at it as two halves,” Bragg said. “The first half was our beginning tournament and then all of these non-region, but conference games. They are important, but I looked at those games as something that was going to get us better for the region, which is our second half.

“I told them our goal from here on out is to do well in the tournament and then to compete in the region for the championship.”

Tournament

The Lady Falcons made good on the first half of their new goals by going to the finals in the Chandler Prep Tournament.

In the first game of the tournament against Mohave Accelerated, FHHS gave one of their new pitchers a chance to start a game.

“The first game was against a solid team,” Bragg said. “We pitched Nicolette Barker first and she did really well. She pitched three innings with two strikeouts and only one earned run.”

The Lady Falcons also did a better job of making contact at the plate.

“Hailey Martinez had a great tournament,” Bragg said. “She had big clutch hits for us that would drive in the runs we needed.”

Kim Hoyt was another Falcon that had a strong tournament offensively, earning four RBI.

The Lady Falcons were able to propel themselves to the finals but Bragg believes that nerves caught up to them during the championship game.

“You could just feel that the girls were putting a lot of pressure on themselves going out,” Bragg said. “I mean, when was the last time we were playing for something like this? So maybe that is on me for not having them prepared for something like that but, bottom line, they were nervous.”

FHHS ended up taking second place in the Chandler Prep tournament.