The 2025 Mississippi high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Mississippi.

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, in the State Tournament finals at the end of May, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across Mississippi. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power 25 rankings that’ll carry us into the opening week of action.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across the state. Each week we will be releasing our Players of the Week and updating the Power 25 rankings.

Our 2025 preseason coverage continues today.

High School: Hamilton Lions
Head Coach: Dallas Flippo
MHSAA Classification: MHSAA 2A
District Number: District 1
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 22-12 (Eliminated Fourth Round)

 

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ROSTER PREVIEW

+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 6
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 3
+ Key Returners:

• RHP/MIF JD Whitaker (2026, Pearl River CC)
• LHP/OF Myles Self (2026, East Mississippi CC)
• RHP/UTL Braedyn Lackie (2026, East Mississippi CC)

More Names to Know

2025s:

• 3B Hunter Barnes (2025)

2026s:

• C/MIF Paxton Dobbs (2026)
• OF Justin Verner (2026)

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TOP NEWCOMERS

+ Impact Underclassmen:

• UTL Isaiah Nichols (2028)
• 1B/OF/LHP Seth Welch (2028)

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2025 OUTLOOK

+ Hamilton returns 6 positional starters and 3 pitchers from a roster that finished 22-12 in 2024 after falling in the 4th round of the 2A State Playoffs to East Union. Head Coach Dallas Flippo will look to a solid defense, overall team speed, and three experienced arms in Lions pursuit of a trip to Trustmark in 2025.

Top returners for Hamilton include juniors JD Whitaker (RHP/MIF), Myles Self (LHP/OF), and Braedyn Lackie (SS/OF/RHP). Hamilton, a Pearl River CC recruit, is coming off a trip to the Future Games and looks to anchor the pitching staff in this season though Coach Flippo acknowledged his bat came alive down the stretch so the Lions will hope to get that production once again. Self and Lackie will also be dual role players that will be expected to give the Lions offensive attack its spark while holding opposing hitters at bay on the mound. 

Other players Coach Flippo expects to contribute heavily will be senior Hunter Barnes (3B), juniors Paxton Dobbs (C/MI) and Justin Verner (OF), along with freshmen Isaiah Nichols (UT) and Seth Welch (OF/LHP).

Both Nichols and Welch were at our recent Top Prospect event at the University of Southern Mississippi and which saw many of the top 2028 players in the state. 

The Lions begin regular season play on February 10th versus Bruce.

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Find more information on Hamilton Lions’ 2025 season below:

+ Follow them on X: @HamiltonLionBSB
+ Find more 2025 team previews on our MHSAA Season Preview page

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+ Prep Baseball Mississippi on X
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