The Missouri high school baseball season kicks off on Mar. 14, opening day for regular season action under MSHSAA 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 Missouri 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.

 

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2025 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Position Players: 8
No. of Returning Pitchers: 4

Top Returners:

• P/OF Zak Meador (2026; Southeast Missouri St.) - 6'0", 205 lbs, L/R
  • Will be a 3rd year varsity starter, power arm on the mound sitting upper 80's, 17 RBIs, 2 HRs, 28 IP, 2-2 W-L, 36 K's in 2024
• P/INF Tim Ekstam Jr. (2025; St. Louis CC) - 5'10", 170 lbs, R/R
  • 77.2 IP, 8-3 W-L, and 2.97 era over the past 2 seasons
• P/INF Kyle Straughan (2026) - 6'0", 155 lbs, R/R
  • 23.2 IP, 2-1 W-L, 2.07 era, and .234 BAA in 2024
• INF Michael Huff (2025) - 5'9", 180lbs, R/R
  • Team leader in BA: .367 and OBP: .557 in 2024
• 1B Tyler Pipkin (2025) - 6'3", 235 lbs, R/R
  • Will be a 3rd year varsity starter, .353 BA, 17 RBIs, 2 HRs, and 11 SB in 2024

Top Newcomers:

• P/OF Maddox Basler (2028)
  • Has shown command 3 pitches and ability to drive the baseball gap-to-gap
• P/OF Connor Cline (2028) - 5'10", 165 lbs, R/R
  • Shows great demeanor on the mound with the potential of strike out stuff. Also a plus arm from the outfield.

Key Players Lost:

• Zane Huff

Coach’s Insight: “Our biggest strength for the upcoming season will be our starting pitching. We have 3 to 4 quality arms that have the ability to get multiple pitches over for strikes and pitch deep into ball games. We also return 8 of our 9 starters from 2024. Of these 8 returners, 5 will have had 2-3 years of varsity experience. Although we return several starters, we are looking for someone to step up into a leadership role. A role that sets the standards and pushes others around them to be better. We also are looking for added depth to the back end of the bullpen and depth off the bench.” – Jake Donze, head coach

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Find more information on the 2025 North County program below:

+ Follow them on X: @NCR_Baseball
+ Visit Prep Baseball Missouri’s 2025 MSHSAA 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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