2025 Spring Team Preview: Montpelier Locomotives

February 12, 2025
Dylan Hefflinger
Prep Baseball Ohio Editor in Chief/Advanced Scout

Follow on Twitter- @PrepBaseballOH
Follow on Twitter- @PrepBaseOHScout
Follow on Instagram- @prepbaseballohio

With 2024 now in the past, Prep Baseball Ohio is eagerly anticipating bringing the Buckeye state the best high school coverage that can be found anywhere in 2025. Starting in February, we began releasing team previews for squads across the state. Ahead, we will have Preseason All-State Teams as well as the Preseason State Rankings coming your way.

To view the full list of 2025 Team Previews that we have already completed, please click here.

If you are a coach and haven't filled out your 2025 Team Preview, click here.

Interested in attending a Prep Baseball Ohio event? Check out our schedule by clicking here.

2025 Spring Team Preview: Montpelier Locomotives

Team Name: Montpelier Locomotives
Head Coach: Toby Hutchison
Division: VII
2024 Record: 13-10
2024 Tourney Finish: Regional Finals loss to Ontario
Returning Starters/Pitchers: 6/5

Coach Outlook: "The 2023/24 season was our farthest tournament run since 2003. Making it out of districts and onto the Regional Semifinal with an extremely young group of kids was huge for our program. Not only has it elevated the confidence of our athletes, but also raised the expectations as well. Our 2024/25 will be determined by our core group of returning athletes from last season. We graduated two cornerstones of our team in seniors Landon Fackler and Jaxon Richmond and returned six starters. This season we will only have one senior, so we will again lean on our large junior class. Returning is Kenneth Smeltzer (1st Team-BBC POY), Griffin Cooley (2nd Team-BBC), and Jaxon Stahler (Honorable Mention- BBC) as well as a healthy Hayden Sharps (season ending injury) and Sophomore Wesley Hartsock.Being able to build off of last season to use it as motivation for this upcoming year will be very important. We are excited to see how the new seven division alignment works out for postseason play."

2025 Team Strengths:

Experience: We bring back a large portion of our defense, pitching and hitting lineup. Almost every kid that was on the team last year had experience playing at both the varsity and jv level. We have athletes who have “been there and done that”. We have a high level of baseball IQ that we hope translates to success on the field.
Positional Flexibility: We preach being able to have a plug and play mindset. Last season we had a major contributor who went down with a season ending injury. Because of this, we played a lot of kids at different positions. Almost everyone we bring back has played multiple positions - which allows us to hopefully patch any holes that may pop up throughout the season.
Leadership: The group of kids that return back to us have played multiple years of high level baseball. These kids know the expectations of the program and they run things the right way. Our kids lead the underclassmen and take ownership of their own team.

Top Returning Players:

Kenneth Smeltzer, RHP/UTIL/C, Junior, R/R, 3 Year starter, BBC POY . Batting - .440 AVG, 7 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 21 RBI, 23 R, 11BB, 24 SB. Pitching - 46.1 IP, 10 GP, 8-1, 1 SV, 59 SO, 2.417 ERA, 1.122 WHIP
Griffin Cooley, RHP/UTIL/C, Junior, R/R, 3 Year starter - 2nd Team BBC. Batting - .333 AVG, 2 2B, 13 RBI, 29 R, 10BB, 33 SB. - Leadoff hitter
Jaxon Stahler, RHP/UTIL, Junior, R/R, 3 Year starter - HM BBC. Batting - .260 AVG, 5 2B, 11 RBI, 29 R, 12 BB, 13 SB. Pitching
Hayden Sharps, RHP/1B, Junior, R/R, 3 Year starter, Played ½ Year - Season Ending Injury. Batting - .345 AVG, 3 2B, 6 RBI, 11 R, 11BB, 2 SB. Pitching - 19.2 IP, 0-2, 2.847 ERA, 1.525 WHIP

Class of 2028 Prospects To Keep Eye On: