Falls Church baseball started tryouts on March 10. Their first scrimmage was against Park View High School on March 14. Their first game was on March 16. Last season the varsity team had a record of 6-14, while JV baseball maintained a record of 1-14. Looking forward to the 2015 season, Ryan Haynes (10) says, “We have set our expectations pretty high, but we have a good group of hard working individuals who work well together.”  When asked about his team’s strengths and weaknesses, Ryan said, “Our strengths are defense and pitching; we could improve on our hitting but we are clearly improving.”

A day of baseball practice is varied, with several different drills.  “An average practice plays out like this: While we are indoors it’s a lot of basic stuff like taking ground balls and hitting in the cage,” says Ryan. “While we are outside we take infield and start batting practice.” To obtain success on the field, Ryan says, “The key to winning will be making the plays behind the pitcher and the lineup being strong from top to bottom.”

The biggest difference between this year’s team and last year’s is that the team lost five seniors and now has five freshman on varsity this year, so as Ryan admits, “we are an inexperienced team.”  But the coaching staff will help impact and contribute to this young squad.  As Ryan says, “I really like the coaches this year, we have a great head coach, Frank Werman, who has done a great job since stepping in last year. And Mr. Johnson does a great job helping us individually.”

As with all sports here at Falls Church, the game that is the most-anticipated on the calendar is the clash with J.E.B. Stuart.  The varsity team will travel to J.E.B. on Friday, April 10, and will then play host to the Raiders on Tuesday, May 5.  JV plays Stuart on the same dates, but with the game sites reversed.  Be sure and come out and support the baseball team this season!