The Platte Valley baseball program’s run of success over the last six years breeds high expectations. The program hasn’t had a losing season since 2018 with four district titles and two trips to state over that span.

Platte Valley enters 2026 with 13 underclassmen and just four upperclassmen. Even so, the team says the expectation is a district championship.

“We always talk about district championships — we talked about it day one,” Platte Valley coach Zach Dyer said. “Even today again we talked about how our expectations don’t change. Even with all those seniors leaving, expectations of Platte Valley baseball are to win ball games and play our best when districts start.”

Platte Valley losses in production will need to be filled by those young players. The team lost its top three pitchers from last season, leaving sophomore Ezra Morriss as the most experienced pitcher on the roster.

Morriss struck out 10 in 13 innings of relief last season.

“Things are going good, we’re just working on being more focused,” Morriss said. “I want us to focus on one thing at a time and just getting better at baseball.”

The offensive lost four of its top five leaders in batting average and RBI from last season. Helping ease the loss is the return of junior Dylan Klamm.

Klamm was second on the team last year with a .418 batting average on 23 hits.

“I try and show the younger players the things that I was taught when I was younger,” Klamm said. “I want them to work on focus, and it sounds stupid but focusing on the game is what’s most important.”

Platte Valley’s lineup will also be aided by the return of senior Emalee Langford. Last season, the second baseman finished with a .260 batting average and tied for third on the team with 14 RBI.

“We’re working hard and ready to go,” Langford said. “Working on confidence and just doing our best. We have goals for the season, and we need to reach them and we’re just working hard to get there. The goal is to make win districts and make it back to state — maybe even win state.”

Dyer said their success will rely on the development of the younger players, including the large freshman class. The sophomore class will also play a much larger role this season. Of the six sophomores, only Mason Holaday played in more than 10 games last season.

“It’s about developing early,” Dyer said. “We have a large freshman and sophomore class, so especially the younger guys have really been focusing on developing. Some freshmen might get some meaningful playing time. To be a successful program, everybody has to be bought in.”

Platte Valley will travel to Albany on Friday, then host Nodaway Valley on March 30. The team will close out March the next day at St. Joseph Christian.

“I want to see fewer errors,” Klamm said. “Last year at the beginning of the season we started with a fair bit of errors. We just want to clean that stuff up at the beginning of the season.”