The Oklahoma high school baseball season kicks off on Feb. 23 for classes A and B and Mar. 1 for classes 2A-6A, opening day for regular season action under OSSAA 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 Oklahoma 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.

High School: Ponca City
Head Coach: Grant Middlebrooks (3)
Classification: 6A
2025 Record (Finish): 13-23

 

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2026 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Position Players: 9
No. of Returning Pitchers: 4

Top Returners:

• Kalon Covey SS/P Sr. 5'10" 170 R/R: 3 Year Starter: Avg: .400 22 SB's. NOC Enid commit.
• Lance Arbona 3B/P Sr. 6'2" 190 R/R: 4 Year Starter 38IP last year w/1.98 ERA.
• Isaiah Branstetter LHP/1B Sr. 6'2" 200 4 Year Starter 48IP last Year.
• Ace McCloud RHP/OF Sr. 5'11" 165 2 Year Starter: 52IP last year.
• Logan Ross OF Sr. 5'10" 190 3 Year Starter.

Top Newcomers:

• Joey Smith RHP Jr. 6'2" 215 lbs R/R
  • Expecting a big jump from him as he becomes an upperclassman
• Sawyer Bartley OF/P So. 5'10" 175lbs R/R
  • Could play a role at some point in the season, will definitely pitch on the weekends.
• Kade York Fr. R/R RHP/OF/1B
  • Excited to see what this kid turns out to be. Has a chance to be a very good player in the future.

Key Players Lost:

• Hayden LeClair 
• Jackson Hunt

Coach’s Insight: “One strength that we will have this year is that we are experienced, returning everyone from the starting lineup from the previous year. I expect this to carry on but we are a solid defensive group, with alot of good athletes on the field. Another strength that I think will help us this year is going to be our pitching, we have alot of experienced strike throwers returning who are competitors on the mound. We will see if this actually becomes a weakness, but depth is an issue for us. Weekend pitching and day to day arms will need some younger players to step up and fill those roles. ” – Grant Middlebrooks , head coach

Outlook: Ponca City will compete in the highly competitive 6A District 3 in 2026. They will return a significant amount of innings from last year's squad that will give them an opportunity each time out this spring. That valuable experience is something they will lean into with younger, less experienced arms developing later in the week throughout the spring. Offensively, they'll again lean into that experience and be led by shorstop Kalon Covey coming off a big year a season ago. A challenging schedule led to a tough district record a year ago and that experience, along with talented upperclassmen, will make Ponca City a team to watch in 2026.

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Find more information on the 2026 Ponca City program below:

+ Follow them on X: @PoncaCityBSBL
+ Visit Prep Baseball Oklahoma’s 2026 OSSAA 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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