The Kansas high school baseball season kicks off on Mar. 19, opening day for regular season action under KSHSAA regulations. Leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2026 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, counting down to the official Prep Baseball Kansas 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 2026 preseason coverage continues today.

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2026 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Position Players: 6
No. of Returning Pitchers: 3

Top Returners:

• Quincy Koehn (2027) - RHP, 6'5, 240, R/R
  • Kansas commit 
  • All-League pitcher / 2nd Team All-State pitcher
• Gavin Short (2026) - OF/P, 6'2, 195, L/L
  • Kansas City Kansas CC commit 
  • All-League pitcher and outfield
• Drake Blasi (2027) - OF, 6'1, 210, L/L
  • 2nd Team All-League outfield.
• Parker Meirowsky (2026) - 1B, 6'2, 200, L/L
  • All-League 1B / 2nd-Team All-State 1B
• Porter Newell (2026) - UTL/P, 5'11, 185, R/R
  • HM All-League pitcher
• Scotty Hadley (2026) - INF, 5'8, 170, R/R
  • HM All-League 2B
• Brodie Jarvis (2026) - INF, 5'10, 160, R/R
  • Friends commit (football) 
  • HM All-League SS.
• Ryder Zimmerman (2027) - INF, 6'1, 180, R/R
  

Top Newcomers:

• Hunter Jennings (2026) - C, 5'10, 185, R/R
  • Butler CC commit
• Zane Brundgardt (2027) - RHP, 6'0, 175, R/R
• Logan Hampe (2027) - OF/P, 6'2, 175, L/L
• Riley Smith (2027) - OF/P, 6'3, 165, R/R
• Brody McDonald (2028) - IF, 6'1, 185, R/R
• Tanner Travis (2028) - IF, 5'11, 155, R/R
• Jace Kennedy (2029) - OF/P, 6'4, 175, L/L

Key Players Lost:

• Sam Soderstrom - Iowa Western CC 
• Luke Ethridge
• Jacob Doty - Allen CC

Coach’s Insight: “We return a majority of our team from a season ago. We are excited to see how much the returners have improved and how much the newcomers are going to push them for playing time. We return most of our innings on the mound along with returning our number one and two from last spring. This is the largest returning group we have had for quite sometime. Team chemistry and the willingness to learn and get better everyday at practice will be key to our success. A couple things could rise depending on how the team wants to compete and get better. If the team already thinks they have accomplished something and team complacency gets in their way, it could be a team weakness for us. Hoping that is not the case and that players want to work everyday and want to compete for playing time opportunities.” – Rocky Helm, head coach

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Find more information on the 2026 Maize program below:

+ Follow them on X: @MaizeBaseball
+ Visit Prep Baseball Kansas’ 2026 KSHSAA 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

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