2025 AAA Team Preview: Taylor Tigers
February 28, 2025
The Arkansas high school baseball season kicks off on Mar. 3, opening day for regular season action under AAA regulations. Leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2025 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, counting down to the official Prep Baseball Arkansas Preseason Power 25 Rankings.
Perennially, we’ve submitted a preseason questionnaire to high school head coaches across the entire state. Their responses have been flooding in and we’re using the detailed insight they’ve provided in our team-by-team preseason analysis.
Our 2025 preseason coverage continues today.
Head Coach: Brian Fowler (7 years)
Classification: 1A
2025 SEASON OUTLOOK
No. of Returning Position Players: 6
No. of Returning Pitchers: 6 of our top 7 from 2024
Top Returners:
- 1B/P Jessie Umphries (2025) - 6'5", 200, L/R
- All Conference, All Region
- 3B/P Aiden Hosley (2025) - 5'9", 145, R/R
- All Conference, All Region
- OF/P Kaleb Downs (2025) - 5'9", 175, R/R
- All Conference
- INF/P Jacob Vandenberg (2026) - 6'3", 170, R/R
- All Conference
- OF/P Jasper Jones (2026) - 5'9", 155, R/R
- Athletic outfielder with power
- C/P Cason Anders (2026) - 5'8", 160, R/R
- Big piece of our bullpen as a sophomore
- INF/P Tucker Smith (2027) - 5'8", 150, R/R
- Versatile INF who played everywhere as a Freshman
- OF/P Wade Barton (2027) - 5'7", 135, R/R
- Played IF & OF then was our DH during the postseason as a freshman
Key Players Lost:
- Waylon Woodell
- Mason Lindsey
Coach’s Insight: “A big strength for us is definitely experience. We will have a lot of guys in our lineup & on the bump that have played a lot of high leverage innings. We also have a lot of guys who can play all over the field so that gives us some options to look at. Our biggest strength is our kids....and what I mean by that is the fact that we have a lot of coachable kids with great work habits. This will help us have some depth that we don't usually see at our small school. We have been fortunate enough to have great senior classes year in and year out. While that is a blessing at the time, it is also a curse when those guys graduate because they leave some big shoes to fill. ” – Brian Fowler, head coach
Find more information on the 2025 Taylor program below:
+ Visit Prep Baseball Arkansas’ 2025 AAA Team Previews page to learn more.
+ If you are a high school coach and didn’t receive our questionnaire, please click HERE to fill out the form