McPHERSON, Kan. – Excitement is brewing for McPherson High School baseball for the 2025 season with their season beginning Tuesday, March 25 against Valley Center at home.
The team finished with a 20-8 record a season ago, ending their season and State Title three-peat hopes after falling to Rose Hill in the Regional Finals. However, the team entered with little to no varsity experience and still won the outright AVCTL Div. 3 title with a 9-1 league record.
The 2024 squad had only three seniors, Alex Wheat, Owen Fetsch, and Gage Egging. The 2025 varsity team returns nearly a full lineup of starters with eight seniors, as well as two juniors and five sophomores. Six of the seniors are committed to play baseball at the collegiate level. The team also returns three All-State honorees and eight All-League mentions.
The pitching staff returns most of their production, led by key senior starters Logan Beede and Ian Razak. Razak, who signed to play at Cloud Community College, was a 2nd Team All-State Pitcher and Honorable Mention first baseman after throwing 56 strikeouts in 12 appearances with a 2.64 ERA and hitting a .324 batting average. Beede’s production on the mound named him an All-State honorable mention after finishing with a 7-0 record in 10 starts and having a 1.42 ERA. Beede will play at Neosho County Community College after high school. The pitching staff also returns All-League Honorable Mention Carter Allen, who is a Pratt CC signee, as well as Isaac Barnett, Cowen Huggard, Brenden Doile, and Cade Strathman who had key appearances last year.
Even with a great pitching staff, the team returns an incredible offensive onslaught. Last year’s leader in batting average was freshman (now sophomore) infielder Carter Bengtson, who hit .385 and drove home 22 runs, ending as an All-State Honorable Mention. They also return another Cloud County signee, 1st Team All-State CF Brody Seidl, who led off and hit .378 last season, scoring 36 times, and stealing 17 bases. Rounding out the infield is Butler CC signee Brock Richardson, who had a team high 5 home runs and 28 RBI, Western Nebraska CC commit Brenden Doile who hit .306 on the year, and 2nd Team All-League honoree Cade Strathman, who hit .324 and brought power and speed to the table after missing the first seven games in 2024 with a collarbone injury.
The team will be one of the more experienced that 11th year head coach Heath Gerstner has seen as well as one of the more talented with the six college commits. The team will eye their third state title in four years, but will have to face some hefty competition.
Some of the tough returning teams include defending 4A champion Rock Creek, divisional foe Mulvane who has many college commits including junior Parker Clubb who will play at Louisville, and defending 3A champion who moved up to 4A Topeka-Hayden.
The first varsity games will be Tuesday, March 25 against Valley Center. Out of the 13 doubleheaders that McPherson will play this season, eight of which will be at home at the Grant Sports Complex.
All home and away baseball games will be broadcast on Ad Astra Radio. All but two matchups will be played on 98.9/1540 KMCP. The other two games will only be streamed, which can be heard on adastraradio.com and the free Ad Astra Radio mobile app.
SCHEDULE
- Tues. 3/25: vs. Valley Center
- Thurs. 3/27: vs. Augusta*^
- Mon. 3/31: at Winfield*
- Fri. 4/4: vs. Chanute
- Mon. 4/7: at Andale^
- Fri. 4/11: vs. Circle*
- Thurs. 4/17: at Mulvane*
- Tues. 4/22: Quad (Emporia, Great Bend, Rose Hill)
- Fri. 4/25: Quad (El Dorado, Iola, Rock Creek)
- Mon. 4/28: at Wichita Collegiate
- Fri. 5/2: Triangular vs. Carl Albert (OK) & Noble (OK) (Games at Carl Albert HS – Midwest City, OK)
- Fri. 5/9: Quad (Great Bend, Junction City, Newton)
- Tues. 5/13: vs. Buhler*
- Tues. 5/20: Regionals
- 5/29-30: State Tournament (Dean Evans Stadium-Salina)
All dates are double-headers unless noted otherwise.
BOLD indicates home games at the Grant Sports Complex.
* = AVCTL Div. 3 game
^ = Games broadcast via stream only.
