Written by Ethan Silverman
Missouri Scouting Director

The defending champions for each Class are for real again this season, with all looking for repeats.

Class Four champions (now Class Five) Rockwood Summit has gotten off to an impressive 8-1 record, showing they can blow out opponents, as well as win the close games.  Jared Corbett leads the offense, hitting .419 with two doubles and two homeruns. Summit has a very balanced offense, with contributions up and down the line up. 

Starting pitchers Ryan Fritz, Rudy May, and Nick Bamvakais have allowed a combined eight runs in 39 innings pitched. Relief pitchers Jared Corbett, Tommy Ellis, and Tyler Goede have not allowed a run in 26.3 innings of work. 

CBC, Francis Howell, and Rockhurst look like contenders as well, and you can never count out Liberty, who has made the final four the last two years. 

Class Three Westminster (now Class 4) is showing their dominance for the third consecutive year, and are loaded for a third consecutive state championship run. A powerful offense led by Shane Benes, Kyle Kinner, Bryce Bell, and Brett Bond have been able to put up runs in bunches. 

The one-two punch of Ben Lovell and Luke Matheny on the mound have been nearly unhittable and will carry Westminster into the postseason if they keep at their current pace. Lovell is 25-1 in his high school career, and continues to get better 

Notre Dame and Logan-Rogersville look to be the biggest challengers to take the crown from Westminster.

Class Two South Callaway (now Class 3) may face the biggest challenge in repeating in a wide-open Class Three field. After moving up a class, Callaway has the cards stacked against them, especially with Forsyth and Holden who have both looked very impressive to this point. Clever also has a deep veteran team and should be in the mix. 

Class One Santa Fe is stacked once again, and will ride the arms and bats of Andrew Curry and Keaton Graf to bring home another championship. The powerful offense also features Grant Boland, Ben Hinz, Cole Wodrich, and Truman Sleeper. 

Oran is the other Class One team to keep an eye one, and is very similar to Santa Fe with quite a few returning starters, led by Kody Moore, Alex Huering, and Seth Ressel.