It’s that time of year again. Country music blaring from the speakers at Kermit A. Johnson Field signals the return of fall baseball at Montevallo. Every afternoon in the September heat, the Falcon baseball team is hard at work in preparation for their fall season.
The Falcons are coming off of a stellar 2025 spring season where they defied expectations. They were initially picked to be 5th in the Gulf South Conference preseason poll, and they finished the regular season with a 25-23 record. As the postseason kicked off with the GSC tournament, the Falcons came out hot, knocking off the number one overall seed, Delta State, in their very first game, winning 7-6.
Last year’s group went on to reach the 2025 GSC championship series, the program’s first time in the title game since 2008. They ultimately fell to West Alabama, coming just short of the trophy.
Redshirt junior Reid Gongwer explained that this fall is all about growth on the diamond before the real show begins in the spring.
“The fall ball games are much more about development than they are winning the actual games, we want to win…but it’s more about seeing, like, what we have as a team,” Gongwer said.
Beginning in October, the team will mostly play intrasquad games, where they’re divided into two teams and compete against each other, but they will also play a few scrimmages against local community college teams as well.
According to Gongwer, the fall is all about focusing on improving the little elements of the game and overall becoming a better baseball player.
“There’s more of an emphasis on getting better at certain aspects instead of just trying to maintain your ability like you would throughout the season,” Gongwer said.
Over the summer, Falcon baseball added 15 transfers to the squad, all coming in from schools across the country. They also added nine true freshmen.
Gongwer admitted that there was a little bit of apprehension, as he didn’t know if the squad would be able to mesh early because of all of the new faces. But ultimately, he thinks that the variety of backgrounds will work in the Falcons’ favor.
“I feel like one of our biggest strengths coming out this year is probably gonna be that we’re all one big unit already and we haven’t even started playing together,” Gongwer said, “I think [the transfers] are gonna be a huge part of our success.”
Gongwer also explained that the group’s main goal for the fall is to find an identity, and having a tight-knit group will make that task a lot easier.
“We’ve been talking about it since we first got to campus, just finding what our team is going to be known for 15 years from now, what are we going to remember about this team,” Gongwer said.
The Falcons bid for another deep postseason appearance will begin in February of 2026, and this year, the Falcons aren’t just aiming to return to the GSC title game. They’re ready to win it.
