CHICAGO (June 3, 2024) — In its 39th year of honoring the nation’s most elite high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Kash Mayfield of Elk City High School is the 2023-24 Gatorade Oklahoma Baseball Player of the Year.
Mayfield is the first Gatorade Oklahoma Baseball Player of the Year to be chosen from Elk City High School.
The award, which celebrates the nation’s top high school athletes for excellence on the field, in the classroom and in the community, distinguishes Mayfield as Oklahoma’s best high school baseball player. From CEOs and coaches to star athletes, Gatorade Player of the Year winners showcase the power of sport, touting an all-star group of alumni that includes Gary Sheffield (1985--86, Hillsborough High School, Fla.), Alex Rodriguez (199293, Westminster Christian School, Fla.), Clayton Kershaw (2005-06, Highland Park High School, Texas) and Max Clark (2022-23, 2021-22 & 2020-21, Franklin Community High School, Ind.).
The 6-foot-4, 200-pound senior left-handed pitcher and outfielder led the Elks (28-5) to the Class 4A tournament quarterfinals this past season. The state’s returning Gatorade Player of the Year, Mayfield went 8-0 on the mound with a 0.16 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 44 innings, walking just eight to record a 0.27 WHIP. He held opponents to a 0.30 batting average and recorded 2.61 Ks per inning, surrendering only four hits and one earned run this spring.
At the plate, he batted .476 with 13 doubles and 11 triples, scoring 31 runs and driving home 31. His on-base percentage was .629, his OPS was 1.593 and he stole 21 bases in 22 attempts.
Ranked as the nation’s No. 27 prospect in the Class of 2024 by MLB Pipeline, he was a 2023 Perfect Game All-American, the Most Valuable Pitcher at the World Wood Bat Association championships and was a 2023 USA Baseball prospect selection.
Mayfield has volunteered locally on behalf of First Christian Church and has also donated his time to Dream League of Elk City, an organization that provides physically challenged kids a chance to play baseball. “Kash was the best arm we saw by far over the past two seasons,” said Cory Miller, head coach at Weatherford High School. “As a junior, he was really good, but this year, he dominated on the mound. He gained velocity and also had really good control of his offspeed stuff, which made him extremely hard to hit. He is very deserving of this award.”
Mayfield has maintained a 3.18 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball on scholarship at Oklahoma State University this fall, but is projected as an early round selection in July’s Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft.
The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.
The selection process is administered by the Gatorade Player of the Year Selection Committee, which leverages experts including coaches, scouts, media and others as sources to help evaluate and determine the state winners in each sport.
Two-time winner Mayfield joins recent Gatorade Oklahoma Baseball Players of the Year Jackson Holliday (2021-22, Stillwater High School), Jackson Jobe (2020-21, Heritage Hall) and Cade Horton (2019--20, Norman High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
As part of Gatorade’s commitment to breaking down barriers in sport, every Player of the Year also receives a grant to donate to a social impact partner. To date, the Gatorade Player of the Year program has provided more than $4.9 million in grants to winners across more than 1,900 organizations.
To learn more about the Gatorade Player of the Year program, check out past winners or to nominate student-athletes, visit playeroftheyear. gatorade.com or follow us on social media on Facebook at facebook.com/GatoradePOY, Instagram at instagram.com/ Gatorade and X(Twitter) at x.com/Gatorade.
