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: Ripley High School
Head Coach: Joel Gafford
MHSAA Classification: MHSAA 4A
District Number: District 1
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 24-12 (State Runner-Up)

 

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ROSTER PREVIEW

+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 5
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 0
+ Key Returners:

• OF Hunter Kuhl (2025, Northeast Mississippi CC)
• 1B Will Caviness (2025, Itawamba CC)

More Names to Know

2025s:

• C Jack Fortune (2025)
• OF Jack Reid (2025)

2026s:

• RHP Warner Rogers (2026)
• 3B/C Ryan Scott (2026)

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2025 OUTLOOK

+ Ripley returns 5 positional starters from last year’s team that finished 24-12 after a trip to Trustmark Park where they lost in an exciting series to eventual State 4A Champions, the Sumrall Bobcats. Head Coach Joel Gafford will look to a strong Tiger defense to help as he navigates through the spring with a brand new pitching staff. 

Top returners for Ripley include seniors Hunter Kuhl (OF, Northeast MS CC recruit) and Will Caviness (1B, Itawamba CC recruit).

Other players Coach Gafford will expect production from will be seniors Jack Fortune (C) and Jack Reid (OF), along with juniors Warner Rodgers (RHP), Ryan Scott (3B/C), and Hayden Kuhl (MI). 

Ripley will begin regular season play on February 11th versus North Pontotoc. 

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Find more information on Ripley’s 2025 season below:

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

FOLLOW US THROUGHOUT THE SPRING

+ Prep Baseball Mississippi on X
+ Prep Baseball Mississippi on Instagram
+ Prep Baseball Mississippi on Facebook

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