The varsity baseball season is in full swing, as the team has already played in eight non-league games in the first few weeks of the season. 

In one of the non-league games on March 31, the team lost 5-2. Looking back on this game, junior captain Finbar O’Brien shared that, “we weren’t as prepared as we wanted to be, but it’s all about the learning experience, especially in non-league play,” he said.

The Falcons finished non-league play with three wins and five losses, including a notable win against 6A David Douglas High School, where the team rolled 29-0.

Half of the Falcons’ non-league games took place in an Anaheim, California tournament, where the team played some tough local competition, finishing with one win and three losses.

Although the tournament didn’t go as he wanted, O’Brien reflected positively on the games. “We got to know each other and each other’s playstyles better,” O’Brien said.

The team stayed in Anaheim for seven nights and flew home the Saturday morning before school returned from Spring Break around 2:30 a.m. due to their flight being delayed for over an hour and a half.

O’Brien said the trip improved team morale. “Everyone bonded together and it was a fun experience because we all just stayed in one house,” he said.

When they weren’t on the field, they went “swimming in the pool and went to the beach together.”

As the team gets ready for league play, O’Brien still thinks the team has things to improve on.

“We had a lot of seniors [last season], so I think just experience and knowing what to do in certain situations, ” O’Brien said.

The Falcons only have a mere seven returning players from last year’s eighteen-man roster that finished with 13 wins and six losses in a shortened, COVID restricted season. 

As the team looks ahead to league play and the rest of the year, O’Brien said, “Our expectation is to win the league and then go into state.”

To succeed in those high expectations, O’Brien thinks that focus and confidence will play as big of a role as anything.

“I think just mentally people just have to have certain approaches to the game, whether that’s at [bat], or pitching, or in the field,” he said.

The Falcons start league play on Tuesday, April 5, at home against rival Wilsonville High School.