The calendar has turned to the a new year and that means the OSSAA high school baseball season will be here soon. Classes A1, A2, and B officially get started February 23 while the rest of the classes begin March 2.

Up until that the beginning of the season, SSBR will be providing previews of as many teams as we can. Recently, SSBR sent out questionnaires to the high school coaches across the state of Oklahoma asking for their top returning players, top newcomers, overall strengths/weaknesses, and their overall assessment where their respective programs are coming into the 2026 season.

What you have below are the responses to those questions in the words of the coaches themselves.

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Today’s team: Stratford Bulldogs

Classification: 2A-1

2025 Spring Results: 8-19

Head Coach: Jake Foster

Head coaching experience: 3rd year (all at Stratford)

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Top Returners

• Oliver Smithwick Junior P/IF Oliver is coming into his junior year as a 2 year starter so far, he is our top returning arm.
• Brody Hallmark Sophomore P/IF Brody is a leader that knows the game and is a great competitor.
• Grady Carter Junior C Grady had to step in the Catching duties this past year and got better each game and will only continue to get better the next two seasons. Lots of power and discipline at the plate.
• Boadie Manuel Sophomore P/IF/C Boadie has tons of upside, strong arm, good glove, good stick at the plate.
• Cash Cothren Sophomore P/IF Cash is a kid you love to coach, works hard, and loves the game of baseball, disciplined and knows the game well

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Top Newcomers

• Caleb Morgan Senior P/OF/IF Caleb will help us out tremendously and make us better. Great leader, leads the right way by doing things right, and holding teammates accountable.

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Overall Team Strengths

Experience, we are still a bit young, but the young guys played a lot of baseball for us last year. Started 7 freshmen and 2 sophomores last season. We will rely on leadership from the upperclassmen, and our pitching staff.

Overall Team Needs to Work On

Fighting through adversity, we showed glimpses of it last year battling back and winning some tight games. Just need to become more consistent and more mentally tough in that aspect.

Outlook

It would be a rebuilding season based off our last two seasons, but at the same time our goals are win the Conference and make the State Tournament. The standard is high, our values aren’t going to waiver, I expect to be competitive in every game we play, we have a long way to go, but I believe we can end up being a really good baseball team in 2026.

Schedule

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