The Missouri high school baseball season kicks off on Mar. 20, 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 (Includes DH)
No. of Returning Pitchers: 8

Top Returners:

• P/1B Jack Cowling (2025; Evansville) - R/R
  • .330 BA, 29 Hits, .435 OBP, 5-3 on the mound, 42.3 IP, 1.9 ERA, 67 K's. Jack is going to be our workhorse on the mound and anchor the middle of our lineup.
• INF/P Joe Gonzales (2026) - R/R
  • .340 BA, 33 Hits, .430 OBP. Joe is our leadoff hitter and provides a spark at the top of our lineup. He can also play any infield position we ask.
• P/1B Justin Nenninger (2026) - R/R
  • 35.3 IP, .99 ERA, 36 K's. Justin will look to be our other conference starter and provide a lot of good innings for us this spring.
• P/1B Ben Barfield (2026) - R/L
  • 24.7 IP, 1.9 ERA. Ben was a mid season addition to Varsity and pitched very well in some conference games ending his season with an undefeated conference record at 2-0. We look for a lot of strong starts from Ben this spring.

Key Players Lost:

• Jeff Williams
• Nick Herman
• Brandon Bechtel

Coach’s Insight: “Our biggest strength is our experience. We have 8 of 10 returning position players back, including the DH position, and have our top 3 starting pitchers back as well. Our overall program numbers have been strong and guys have been putting in some work in the offseason and I am excited to see how that translates on the field. We do have a lot returning, and a lot of experience back, however, the biggest question is if that experience will turn into results on the field. Can the Seniors and Juniors who have been starters for a couple years now turn that experience into wins and positive results on the field.” – Justin Schmidt, head coach

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Find more information on the 2025 North Point program below:

+ Follow them on X: @NPGrizzBaseball
+ 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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