High school baseball season is finally upon us! In honor of our favorite time of the year beginning today, we’ve decided to put together our predictions for which teams we believe are going to claim the title of “State Champions” at the end of the year, as well as the runner-ups in each class, and the MVP and Cy Young across Oklahoma this year. For the sake of this exercise, we’ll be splitting up the bigger schools (6A-3A) from the smaller schools (2A-B), so there will be two MVPs and two Cy Youngs. Without further ado, let’s jump right into the predictions.
MVP
Big School (6A-3A) – Garrett Shull, Enid Plainsmen
The reigning PBR player of the year out of Enid is back for his senior season and has only improved since his elite 2023 campaign. There’s no shortage of high-end talent in the state, so you could go several different directions with this pick, we’re leaning into Shull’s role last season in helping lead the Plainsman to their first state championship appearance since 1986 as the thing to push him to the top of the list. Shull is a threat to leave the yard at any given time, and his elite speed will give him a chance to rack up big numbers in the doubles and triples columns. Shull also offers a great amount of versatility, both in the field and at the plate. He’s been featured in both the infield and the outfield, playing steady defense in both spots during his time at Enid. At the plate, he’s one of the elite switch hitters not just in the state but in the nation. In Enid’s 10 scrimmages this season, Shull has slugged his way to a .667 avg with five home runs and nine extra-base hits, already showing off the strides he made this offseason that made him our choice.
Small School (2A-B) – Eli Willits, Fort Cobb-Broxton Mustangs
When I first sat down to think about who to pick for small school MVP, my mind immediately went to Willits, but I was hesitant at first to make it my official pick for the obvious reason that he’s only a sophomore. However, once you look at the numbers, it becomes impossible to deny the impact the young star had already made on the Mustangs. We could sit and talk all day about his elite metrics, but it was one particular stat that stood out to me most, and that was Willits’ production on the biggest stage as such a young player. Entering his sophomore spring, Eli has already been a part of three different state tournament runs with Class B powerhouse Ft. Cobb-Broxton, and in those nine games Willits has compiled a .625 avg and an unbelievable 21 RBIs. If you take out his first tournament run in his freshman fall season, his average jumps up to .733 and his OBP is an otherworldly .840. As the saying goes, people lie but numbers don’t, and the numbers tell me Eli Willits is the best player at the small school level in Oklahoma.
Cy Young
Big School (6A-3A) – Jackson Farrell, Owasso Rams
There are plenty of elite arms in the state this year and every year, but none can claim a career as dominant as Arkansas commit Jackson Farrell. Since his freshman year, Owasso has put a lot of faith in the lefty, making him a full-time district starter in just their second district series of the season, a game in which he proved the Owasso staff right by throwing five shutout innings in a run-rule win. In his first season as the ace of the Rams staff last season, he was nearly perfect, giving up only two earned runs in 64.2 innings, and piling up 97 strikeouts along the way. There’s no reason to believe Farrell’s streak of dominance over the unfortunate hitters who have to face him will end any time soon, so Owasso’s finest is the pick here.
Small School (2A-B) – Keegan Robertson, Rattan Rams
Once we get down to the small schools, the race for Cy Young gets a bit closer, but we’ve tabbed Cowley CC commit Keegan Robertson as our guy. Out of our four picks, this is the one we’re betting most on what we expect to see this spring rather than what we’ve seen in the past. By no means does that imply Robertson hasn’t been great in the past, he’s proven to have what it takes to shut down elite offenses multiple times, throwing seven shutout innings against a Stillwater team that made the 6A state tournament last spring, and even more recently throwing five innings in the Class A fall state championship while not allowing an earned run. However, for as many dominant outings as Robertson has had, he’s fallen victim to allowing a few too many free passes on walks in the past. With that said, we saw improvement in Robertson’s control this fall and if he can continue to limit walks, he’ll make it extremely hard to get the best of Rattan any time he’s on the mound.
State Champions (6A-B)
And now for the not-so-enviable task of trying to select a state champion and runner-up in each class. Frankly, choosing even half of these teams correctly would be a win in my book, with so much talent across the state it’s nearly impossible to predict who will eventually emerge from the pile victorious come May 11th. With that said, please feel free to tag me on Twitter after your team wins the state championship to rub it in my face that I was wrong. Let’s jump in shall we?
6A – Owasso Def. Enid
Let me begin by recognizing how agonizing this scenario must be to Enid players and coaches if it happens. Back-to-back losses in the state championship have to hurt, but taking a step back and viewing this objectively, this would still be a massive success for an Enid program that has fought for so long to prove themselves as a real contender in 6A. Shifting the focus to my predicted winners, the Owasso Rams, it starts and ends with what should be the pitching staff best set up for a state tournament run. The Rams return three D1 level arms this season, including one of the most dominant pitchers the state has seen in the past decade in Jackson Farrell. At this point, I would have to guess we see a district rotation of Jackson Farrell on Mondays and former OU commit Luke Williams on Tuesdays, however, if for some reason they decide to make a change, no worries, they can just insert their other Arkansas commit Cooper Auschwitz into the rotation. As dominant as the pitching staff is, you have to score to win games, so what does the Rams lineup look like? Did we mention all three of those elite pitchers we just mentioned are just as deadly at the plate? Beyond those three, the Rams return a solid core of veteran position players such as NEO commit Cooper Harrel and NOC Tonkawa commit Bodie Amberson, as well as a few talented young guys who will look to make an impact early on in their high school careers.
Touching on Enid, the Plainsman returned nearly everyone from their 2023 squad that, as we mentioned before, made it to the state championship. That said, the biggest piece missing from the 2023 team is former ace Jake Kennedy who has moved on to Oklahoma State. We believe Enid has the pieces to replace Kennedy’s production with talented arms like Texas Tech commit Whaetley Chaloupek and a whole stable full of JUCO arms like Seth Carlson and Bennett Percival, and multiple others who are more than capable of giving Enid quality innings this year. Finally, you have to talk about Garrett Shull when you talk about Enid. He’ll look to lead a lineup that returns quite a bit of production from a year ago to another deep run in the state tournament, and ultimately to another shot at the state championship. One final note, although I didn’t intentionally match the MVP and Cy Young picks to who I thought would make the state championship, I also can’t say I’m surprised by the fact they lined up either.
5A – Carl Albert Def. Collinsville
In my time picking who I think will win things, I’m looking at you March Madness, I’ve come to realize that more often than not, the boring pick is usually the right one. Carl Albert has been in three of the last four 5A state championships, and they’ve won two of the last three, so while there are more exciting picks I could make, it’s hard to imagine much changing this year., especially when their squad returns nearly all of their production from a state championship-winning team in 2023. The Titans needed only three pitchers in the entire state tournament last season, and all three are back in 2024, along with a bullpen full of more than capable arms that could have more than held their own had they been needed. At the plate, the Titans return each of the top four hitters from their starting lineup in the state championship last year and return even more if you include guys like Kash Ferris and Mister Randle who saw plenty of time in the starting lineup last season as well.
Picking the second team I thought would reach the championship in 5A this year was a bit more tricky. Carl Albert’s opponent from each of their last two state championships in 2021 and 2023, Bishop Kelley, has moved back into 6A, taking them off the table. Another familiar face in the 5A state tournament, Piedmont, made the move up to 6A as well, opening the door for some new blood in the late rounds of the 5A tournament. We’ve decided to bet on the high-quality pitching staff the Collinsville Cardinals will have this season. The Cardinals went an outstanding 32-5 last season, before falling to the eventual state champions in round one of the state tournament. The Cardinals and Titans are more than familiar with each other at this point, and if our predicted state championship game becomes a reality it would be the 5th season in a row the two teams had met in the state tournament, with the mini-series favoring Carl Albert 3-1 to this point. Collinsville has consistently found themselves in the state tournament in recent years, and we believe this year is the year the Cardinals get over the hump. For that to happen, they’ll need big years from the arms at the top of their rotation such as JT Davis, who has experience in the state championship from his time at Owasso where he went all seven innings to clinch the 2022 state title for Rams, and Texas Wesleyan commit Madaxon Aunko.
4A – Blanchard Def. Tuttle
The Blanchard vs Tuttle rivalry has become the baseball version of Cavs vs Warriors in recent years, with the two teams meeting in back-to-back state championships in 2022 and 2023. If a third rendition of this game becomes a reality, we can only hope that it lives up to the standard set by the first two matchups, both of which ended in one-run victories, with Blanchard walking it off in 2022 and Tuttle clinching a 4-3 win last season. Ultimately, I think there’s a lot to learn from the first two matchups, the most important being how little separates these two. You could tell me either of these teams would win it all this year and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised, but alas, someone has to win, and we’ve put our eggs in the Blanchard basket this time around. With such little disparity between the two teams, the biggest factor in our decision to boost Blanchard up just past Tuttle was that Blanchard is returning nearly all of their production from a season ago, while Tuttle, although returning plenty of great players themselves, will be relying just a bit more on unproven, yet talented, commodities.
3A – Washington Def. Salina
I’ll say it again, the boring pick is usually the right one. If the Warriors prove me right, it will be their third state championship in a row and will cement their status as one of the best dynasties 3A has seen in this state. From afar, it seems like this is the year for another school to make their run at what seems like a weakened Washington team, losing their star from years past to graduation and the University of Tennessee. You would be right to say that in a sense, obviously losing such a talented player would hurt any program, but you would be mistaken to think this Washington team isn’t still an extremely talented bunch, that could go toe to toe with any team in the state. The two biggest keys to the Warriors’ continued success will likely be Houston commit Dax McCaskill and Cowley CC commit Marlon Moore. Both of them have been mainstays in the heart of Washington’s lineup for both of their recent state championship runs and are among the best hitters in the state.
Salina on the other hand is an up-and-coming contender in 3A, who will be looking to take the next step after two consecutive seasons defeating Heritage Hall in the first round of the state tournament, only to fall to Washington in the semi-finals both times. The Wildcats return a nucleus of players that helped lead them to a 21-win season a year ago, which featured wins over multiple 6A state tournament teams in Owasso and Deer Creek. If anybody in 3A is going to dethrone the two-time defending champs, we like Salina’s odds the best of the bunch.
2A – Oktaha Def. Field
Look, nothing is a sure thing in high school baseball. However, the Oktaha Tigers are as strong of a state title contender that you’ll find. Their lineup 1-9 can compete in any class in the state and their pitching is solid too. They 31-2 in the Fall with both of those losses to Silo with the Rebel knocking them out of the state semifinals. Silo plays in 3A in the Spring starting this season, so the Tigers won’t have to worry about the Rebels.
It’s hard to pick just one other contender in 2A, but based on what happened this past fall, we can narrow it down to 3 teams. Wister is a solid team out of the Southeastern part of the state. Dale will be a contender once all of their basketball players return and get in a rhythm. Okarche is a team that no one seems to talk about, but they put together a State semifinal run in the fall with losses to only Ft Cobb-Broxton, Calumet, Dale, Oktaha, and Rattan.
Class A – Rattan Def. Wright City
Sticking with the trend of having players I picked to win awards going to the state championship (Just wait until you see who I picked to win Class B), I’m going with the Rattan Rams to repeat as champions in Class A. The Rams are led by one of the better pitching staffs that the state has to offer, a group that gave up an average of only 2.19 runs per game this fall and completed nine shutouts along the way. The group is led by a duo of Cowley CC commits, seniors Keegan Robertson and Logan Smith, but the Rams feature more than enough depth to make a deep run in the postseason. Frankly, the Rams were the clear favorites to win another ring this spring, but what wasn’t quite as clear was who their challenger would be. Many of the toughest opponents from their dominant run this fall make the jump to 2A in the spring, leaving the field wide open for a team to get hot and make a run at the title this May. We’re going with Wright City to separate themselves from the pack this spring after an encouraging fall season. The Lumberjax not only feature one of the better team names in the state, but a very talented roster as well. Wright City fell in the first round of the fall tournament to who else but the Rattan Rams, but it should be noted they kept the score closer than either team Rattan played in the semis or championship. The Jax proved they could compete with the best of the best in small school baseball this fall, beating Silo twice, including an 11-1 beat down in the middle of the season, and we’re looking at them as the team we think has the best shot of getting hot down the stretch and challenging Rattan in Class A.
Class B – Ft. Cobb-Broxton Def. Calumet
Last but certainly not least, we’ve got familiar face Ft. Cobb-Broxton taking home the state title once again this spring. However, we’re going in a different direction with who we think their challenger will be, pivoting away from longtime Class B powerhouse Roff, and going with the Calumet Chieftains to be one of the final two teams standing. It’s no secret that Mustangs are the favorite to win it all this spring after run-ruling all three state tournament games en route to a championship this fall. You don’t have to look very far to see what makes this Mustangs team so deadly, they’ve got top-end talent in sophomore Eli Willits, as well as plenty of depth throughout the pitching staff and lineup that are more than capable of beating anyone in Class B. We’re leaning heavily into what we saw this fall for our runner-up pick, as Calumet broke onto the scene in a big way, ending the year with a 30-2 record and a runner-up finish, falling to Ft. Cobb-Broxton in the championship. The Chieftans can beat you with their hitting, but it was their pitchers who stole the show last fall to the tune of 17 shutouts. Yes, you read that correctly, over half of their total games last fall ended without their opponent scraping across a single run. If anyone has a chance to dethrone the Mustangs this spring, look for Calumet to be the one to get it done.
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