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I am anchor
Softball season begins on the road
Posted
Joey Postiglione, Reporter
Back on the field with new gear and freshly mowed grass the Fountain Hills High School softball team is ready to kick off its 2020 season this week.
The Lady Falcons’ first game of the season is today, Feb. 26, away at Snowflake, last year’s state runner-up. The game starts at 3 p.m.
In the limited time that he has had with the team head coach Randy Bragg said he is happy with the talent he has on his squad, he just wishes that the club was a little bigger.
“It’s going good and bad,” Bragg joked. “The girls we have are fantastic. Their great athletes, we’ve had nothing but positive attitudes and some of the best practices that I, as a coach, have ever had. The one negative is that our numbers are not where we thought they’d be as far as players. We only have eleven.”
Bragg said that it is on him and his coaching staff to stay positive about the small number of players and do what is in their power to make sure that everyone stays healthy and eligible.
“The key thing is making sure that the girls are eligible, grade-wise, so we don’t have any problems there,” Bragg said. “Make sure they stay healthy, but obviously there are things that are out of our control. We’ll also be on the lookout for anyone that we can pick up.”
The Lady Falcons played in their first scrimmage on Feb. 21 and the performance Bragg saw from his team has him excited to see what they will do when it comes to their first regular season game.
“We played well, I was really, really proud of the team,” Bragg said. “Both Nicolette Barker and Sophia Buckley pitched very well and Soph was on top of her game. Defensively they did well and we were hitting the ball.”
Fountain Hills was the winner of the region last year and Bragg is feeling pretty good about pulling it off again.
“I still think that we are the best team in the region going into this year,” Bragg said. “I think we should be the odds on favorite to win the region again. We have some returning talents and some pickups that are really going to help us.”
As for players to keep an eye on this season, Bragg is excited to see what his returning players will do and what some of the new additions will manage.
“Sydney Loyet is a returning all-region 3A conference short stop and Kim Hoyt is another returning all-region player,” Bragg said. “We are hoping that our new pickups will help us get to where we need to be and knock off some of those premier teams in the state.”
The first home game of the season for the Lady Falcons will be on March 16.
