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: Independence High School
Head Coach: Jordan Edwards
MHSAA Classification: MHSAA 3A
District Number: 3A + District 2
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 17-13 (Eliminated First Round)

 

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ROSTER PREVIEW

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

• RHP/MIF Miller Owens (2025)
• C/RHP Dallas Stepp (2025)
• 1B/DH DJ Mitchell (2025)
• 1B Braylon Davis (2026)
• 3B/RHP Eli Stepp (2028)

More Names to Know

2025s:

• MIF/RHP Gavin Pierce (2025)

2026s:

• C/MIF/RHP Merritt Owens (2026)
• INF/OF Jeremy Ray (2026)
• OF Austin Eddie (2026)

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TOP NEWCOMERS

+ Impact Underclassmen:

• OF/INF Kaleb Kitchens (2028)

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2025 OUTLOOK

+ Independence returns 6 positional starters and 3 pitchers from last year's squad that finished 17-13 after a first round loss in the 3A State Playoffs. Head Coach Jordan Edwards is counting on senior leadership to help lead the Wildcats into the 2025 season. His senior class is full of players with 3 or more years of experience. Those seniors along with several underclassmen with experience should be beneficial as the Wildcats look to take their 4th straight division title. 

Top returners for Independence will be seniors Miller Owens (MI/RHP), Dallas Stepp (C/RHP), and DJ Mitchell (1B/DH), along with juniors Braylon Davis (1B) and Eli Stepp (3B/RHP).

Other players Coach Edwards expects to contribute are senior Gavin Pierce (MI/RHP), and juniors Merritt Owens (C/MI/RHP), Jeremy Ray (INF/OF), and Austin Eddie (OF), along with freshman Kaleb Kitchens (OF/INF).

Independence will open regular season play on February 10th at Charleston. 

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Find more information on Independence’s 2025 season below:

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

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