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.

 

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2025 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Position Players: 5
No. of Returning Pitchers: 5

Top Returners:

• P/UTL Cam Foree (2025; Seminole St.) - 5'11", 175, R/R
  • Lineup wise he will hit 2-4. Defensively he will be one of our top pitchers, and is our utility guy. He has tools to play both infield and outfield, and will fit right in where we need him. He quietly takes the momentum of the game, and finds ways to control it. He always wants the ball in his hands, or wants to be the guy at the plate with a chance to win it. Offensive stats from last season: All conference and All state. .351BA, 33 hits, 29 RBI's, and 28 runs scored. Pitching stats: over 30 innings pitched, struck out 49, and only walked 15. Stat line from the district championship: W 6.2IP, OER's, 9K's, 1BB
• SS/P Jaden Passmore (2025) - 5'8", 135, R/R
  • Lineup wise he hit 3 hole for us the past 2 seasons, and will be a top 3 guy again this year. Defensively he will be our shortstop, and typically slides into our closer role on the mound. Kid spends more time at our facility than he does at home. He loves to compete, and helps drive our energy every day. Offensive stats from last season: .284BA, 25 hits, 22 RBI's, and 29 runs scored. Pitching stats: 29 innings pitched, he gave up 10 earned runs, and struck out 34. He finished the season with a 2.3 ERA as our closer.
• P/INF Devan Hightower (2026) - 5'11", 160, R/R
  • Devan sat in the 9 hole for most of last season, but we see him as a top 5 guy this year. He has been our everyday 2nd baseman, and is one of our top arms on the mound. He is one of the more mentally tough kids that I've ever had the privilege of coaching. No moment is too big for him, and he never gets too high or too low. Offensive stats from last season: .231BA, .444OBP, 15 RBI's, 29 runs scored. Pitching stats: 62.1IP, 16 earned runs, 16BB, 71K's, and a 1.7ERA.
• 1B Brady Wood (2026) - 6'0", 190, R/R
  • Brady is a kid that is a true leader. He is the constant voice in the locker room, dugout, and on the field. He has the ability to get the guys focused on what is important, and helps uphold our culture everywhere we go. He has been our cleanup hitter the past 2 seasons. He is our first baseman, and plans to be right back in the middle of the lineup this year. Offensive stats from last season: .263BA, 25 hits, 23 RBI's, 24 runs scored.

Top Newcomers:

• OF/3B Owen McLaughlin (2026) - 5'9", 185, R/R
  • Owen is an explosive player that will provide a spark for us in the lineup. He has the ability to move around defensively, and he has shown that he will be a key piece of our lineup offensively. He's a very coachable kid that is starting to take on a leadership role in his first year with us.
• OF/P Blaine Baxter (2026) - 6'0", 150, L/L
  • Blaine is another move in, and we expect him to make an impact on our lineup. He was out all of last season due to an injury, and I think that has provided a little extra motivation. He's understanding our system, and I believe he will help us out in the outfield, and on the mound.

Key Players Lost:

• Kaelan Duncan
• Gabe Witt
• Tyson Trucks

Coach’s Insight: “When I think of our strengths, the one that sticks out the most is our guys' approach to the game. Every single day their mindset is to show up with intention and discipline and have fun. This is obviously a concept they talk about in little league, but it’s one our young men have grasped onto because they spent years at the bottom of our league. So knowing where we are going with our program, but never forgetting where we came from. This game gets tough, and it demands everything, but they remind themselves why they do it and that makes us tough to beat. There's also a number of things every year that have to go right for a team to find the success they are in search of. For us, the way we will win is with who we are. We have to beat teams with our identity. That's small ball, timely hitting, filling up the zone, and making the routine play. Our guys do a great job of creating momentum in a game that sometimes can be hard to find. They constantly bring energy, they challenge each other every day in practice, and they want to win more than anything. Last year we got a little taste of success, this year we have an entirely new team but the goal is the same. Our two assistant coaches do an outstanding job, and the best thing that we have that gives us a chance to be great is leadership within our players. They hold one another accountable, and are asked to control situations they may have never created. I love these guys, and I'm excited to see what they can do in 2025. A couple of areas that we have to get better at is lowering the amount of strikeouts, and understanding our swings. We are not a team that is going to average double digit home runs every year, so we have to have every single guy understand that. These two things correlate with one another in my opinion. When we play to our identity, we are dang good. That has to happen in all aspects of the game. Sometimes we see an arm that isn’t pumping it in there as good, and we want to swing out of our shoes. It’s a discipline thing at the end of the day, don’t try to be someone you aren’t, and there has to be an altered approach with two strikes. We also graduated our catcher this past season, and he was the 4A-3 catcher of the year for our conference. (JR) Wyatt Bishop is now stepping into that role, and we aren't going to change the expectation for him. Game experience is the best thing for a guy back there, and he's going to get all of that. We've also battled some injuries from some guys banged up after football, and just have to do everything we can to ensure we are putting our guys in a position to be healthy. ” – Adam Winter , head coach

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Find more information on the 2025 Southside (Batesville) program below:

+ Follow them on X: @SouthernersBB
+ 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

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