Clinton Prairie baseball was one game away from winning a Semistate title in 2025.
The Gophers fell to No.1 Kouts in the Semistate Championship and come into this season with big expectations, despite losing some key pieces from last year’s squad.
“Coming off that Semistate team, we lost five seniors, of those five, three played a lot,” Clinton Prairie baseball coach Matthew Scott said. “We’re really going to miss the leadership that comes with that.”
The Gophers were ranked No.2 in 1A in the pre-season poll from the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association. But Scott told the team that it comes with a target as well.
“It’s nice to be recognized for the work that you’ve put in,” Scott said. “But being ranked, we’re going to get everyone’s best shot, whether that’s Rossville, Delphi, Frankfort or whoever, they’re gonna give us their best shot. So we have to be prepared every single time that we want to play, we have to show up and play.”
To help, Scott said he worked on beefing up the schedule. The Gophers will play No. 9 (3A) Cascade, (4A) McCutcheon, (4A) West Lafayette, No. 3 (2A) Lafayette Central Catholic, RV (2A) Delphi, No.6 (1A) Rossville and No. 7 (2A) Eastern.
The Gophers return their top hitter, and Rose-Hulman commit Kye Jacobs and top pitcher Cayden Robinson.
Jacobs hit over .500 last year and led the team in hits, runs, home runs, doubles and stolen bases.
Robinson was an ace for Clinton Prairie, finishing 8-0 with a 1.67 ERA in 42 innings of work.
Clinton Prairie will begin its season with Frontier on April 4.
Listen to the full interview with coach Matthew Scott below.