The Fountain Hills High School baseball team continued its winning streak with a 4-3 win over Chino Valley and an 8-0 win over American Leadership Academy – Ironwood this past week. The Falcons have now won four in a row, and six of their last seven games.

“Trying to win every game that we play. I say that all the time,” head coach Bob Langer said. “We just try to win every game with quality at bats, good pitching, defense. Our pitching’s coming along real well, we still need to get better hitting and we need to play a little better defense, but yeah we’re moving in the right direction.”

The Falcons started the week with a “trap” game on the Monday after spring break. The Falcons hosted Chino Valley (1-6) on Monday, March 20, and they needed a walk-off hit to win in the seventh inning.

The Falcons allowed one run in the first and third innings, and then responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Lucas Grieco and junior Nathan Hughes each walked, and then sophomore Zion Sidhu and junior Ty Langer got hits to take them home. Langer was left on base by the end of the inning.

The Cougars tied it 3-3 in the next inning, but the Falcons struggled to string good bats together. The Falcons did not want to lose their first region game of the year, but they needed to keep calm under pressure.

The pitchers answered the call and kept Chino Valley from adding to their lead. Junior Lucas Williams pitched four innings as the starter, and had two walks and one strikeout. Senior Kyle Biebrich closed it out with three strikeouts and only one hit allowed in the last three innings.

The Falcons got clutch hitting from two new additions to the team this year. Freshman Jack Irwin hit a single when there were two outs and no base runners, and then senior Tim Lamar went up to bat.

Irwin, or “The Freshman” as his teammates call him, is leading the Falcons in hits and RBIs, and Lamar is leading the team in stolen bases. The two had to switch roles for a change, and Irwin stole second base so Lamar could send him home with a double.

“Tim’s always been a good contact hitter, and all season he’s shown it,” Irwin said. “When he made contact with the ball, I just knew it was going to get through. It was awesome.”

Irwin and Langer were the only Falcons with multiple hits. Lamar, Sidhu, Grieco, sophomore Aiden Cronican and senior Devyn Hernandez filled out the rest of the team’s 10 hits.

Irwin was one of two Falcons to get multiple hits in their next game. Irwin is the team’s only freshman, and he’s been on fire this season. With 13 hits, 10 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .457 through 11 games, he’s been one of the better varsity players this season.

“They’ve been treating me good and it’s just been a fun environment to be around,” Irwin said. “That’s how I’ve just been getting it done…It’s the whole team being supportive.”

The Falcons survived Chino Valley and then went on to win 8-0 over ALA-Ironwood (2-4) last Tuesday, March 21. Most of the work was handled by juniors Kyan Taylor and David Goldapper, who threw 15 combined strikeouts from the mound.

“They were pretty dynamic that day,” Langer said. “We probably could’ve scored more runs that game and we made a couple of errors, but those two were pretty dynamic.”

Flynn returned after his injury scare and had two hits in three at bats. He hit one double and Ty Langer hit a triple in the top of the fifth to make it 6-0 in the Falcons’ favor.

The Falcons put away the Warriors and are back on to the region schedule this week. They traveled to Camp Verde (3-4) after press time on Monday, March 27, and the will host Camp Verde this Thursday, March 30, at 3:45 p.m.

The Falcons would have played a varsity game with Bourgade Catholic this upcoming Saturday, but the Golden Eagles couldn’t fill a varsity team this year. Due to the two games the Falcons lost against Bourgade, and a tournament the Falcons dropped themselves, Fountain Hills is actively looking for more games to schedule before potential playoff games start.

The Falcons will host Wickenburg (1-5) this upcoming Monday, April 3, at 3:45 p.m., and then travel to Wickenburg on Thursday, April 6. All home games are held at Fountain Hills Middle School.