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: 12
No. of Returning Pitchers: 6

Top Returners:

• SS Caden Deeney (2025) - 5'7, 150 R/R
  • Caden has been our everyday shortstop and leadoff hitter since his sophomore season and is ready for a great senior campaign
• UTL Anthony Manfredi (2025) - 5'8", 175, R/R
  • Anthony does a little bit of everything for us and is the heart and soul of our team as a leader
• 1B/RF/LHP Nicholas Dawson (2025; Crowder) - 5'10", 170, L/L
  • Nich is our leader offensively and has the ability to hit for power with his solid gap-to-gap approach.
• C/1B/DH Cole Pleacher (2025) - 6', 205, L/R
  • Cole will be our #1 catcher this year and is a solid middle of the lineup bat from the left side, leads our team in extra base hits.
• RF/LHP/1B Brayden Branson (2026) - 5'9", 155, R/L
  • Brayden will be a big part of our rotation this year as a LHP and has one of the highest baseball IQs we have in the program
• LHP/1B/DH Cade Pleacher (2026) - 6'1" 170, L/L
  • Cade is another junior LHP that we have high expectations for this year, he had quality innings last year that he looks to build on
• LF/2B Devin Ottens (2025) - 5'9", 160, R/R
  • Devin has worked very hard on his game this season and looks to have a breakout senior season at the plate
    

Top Newcomers:

• 3B/2B Connor Reinhardt (2025; Central Methodist) - 5'11", 160, R/R
  • Connor brings an aggressive approach at the plate to our squad this year and will be able fill a few spots defensively

Key Players Lost:

• Brandon Lindle
• Stuart Grotenhuis
• Josh Hazlett

Coach’s Insight: “We have been looking forward to this year for a few seasons now as the core of guys who started on Varsity as sophomores are now seniors. The top of our lineup should be very competitive and we have a group of juniors we think will be able to take a big step to replace the innings we lost to graduation last year. Our depth of pitching would be considered our weakness but we are excited to see guys compete to fill that void.” – Corey Lathrom, head coach

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Find more information on the 2025 Truman program below:

+ Follow them on X: @Truman_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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