The Arkansas high school baseball season kicks off on Feb. 26, opening day for regular season action under AAA regulations. Leading up to opening day, we’ll be publishing our team previews ahead of the 2024 spring season, touching on programs spanning all state classifications, counting down through 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 2024 preseason coverage continues today.

High School: West Fork
Head Coach: Lance Tucker (7 at WF, 11 Total )
Classification: 3A
2023 Record: 15-7 Conference Runner-up

 

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2024 SEASON OUTLOOK

No. of Returning Starters:

6

Top Returning Players:

Jacob Foster C/P (JR) 5'10, 170 R/R 2023 All-Conference One of the best receiving catchers I've ever had, this year he will also be one of our top pitchers and have to give us a lot more innings.

Rylan Brock INF/P (SR) 5'7 150 S/R 2023 All-Conference 4 year starter and has spent most of that time as our switch hitting lead off. He's another pitcher that will have to step into a new role, maybe as a starter.

Connor Allen 1B/P (SR) 6'0 250 L/R 2023 All-Conference He led us in mound appearance last year, coming out of the pen he complemented our starting pitching very well. He's a crafty type of pitcher that rarely throws anything straight, lots of movement .

Top Newcomers:

Todd Bowen 3B/P (SO) 5'10 180 R/R very talented young player who was able to log a few innings on the mound last year in some non conference games. He's one that we will be looking at to compete for a starting rotation spot.

Payton Hampton P (JR) 6'2 220 R/R mainly a JV player for us last year but made leaps and bounds with his mechanics and arm strength from the beginning of last year to this year. Long and powerful on the mound, still a little raw but a lot of untapped potential.

Coach’s Insight:

“We hang our hat on defense at West Fork, the bats may not always travel, a pitcher may have a bad day every now and then but we can always play defense. With that being said, 4 of our 6 returning starters have started in the same position for the last 2 years. We are comfortable and confident in those positions which will help when focusing on finding replacements for our graduating seniors. Starting pitching is where we lack the most experience, we have quite a few guys who have logged innings for over the last couple seasons but not many of those were as a starting pitcher. ” – Lance Tucker, head coach

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Find more information on the 2024 West Fork program below:

+ Visit Prep Baseball Arkansas’ 2024 AAA Season Preview page to learn more.

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