How ‘6-tool’ star Wyatt Plyler, All-Area player of year, led Sumner to 4A title
Wyatt Plyler started dreaming about winning a state title a while ago. Going into the 2026 season, he felt this year’s group was especially connected.
Maybe it started at nearby Lake Debra Jane in Bonney Lake. Plyler and some of his Sumner High School baseball teammates fish for trout there.
“How connected we are — everyone’s well connected,” Plyler told The News Tribune during the first days of spring practice. “We’re all boys, we all go fishing outside of school. Just a great group of guys. We want all in.”
This spring, Plyler and his teammates reeled in the biggest prize yet: the Class 4A state championship trophy.
Plyler, a Wake Forest commit and one of the state’s top-ranked juniors, was the best player on the state’s best team, leading Sumner to the 4A District 3/4 title and the state championship. Sumner beat Gonzaga Prep in the title game in Everett, 7-0.
Plyler is The News Tribune’s 2026 All-Area player of the year. Second-year Sumner coach Dylan Mclauchlin saw glimpses from Plyler during his sophomore year. This spring, he cranked it up a notch.
“I expected this,” Mclauchlin said. “He’ll probably go down as the best kid I’ve coached in all aspects of baseball.”
Plyler was one of the state’s top two-way players in the spring. On the mound, he had a 9-1 record with 100 strikeouts and a 1.43 earned run average in 53.2 innings. At the plate, he hit .383 with eight doubles, three triples, a home run and 25 RBI.
Mclauchlin said Plyler has the natural ability, obviously, but his work ethic sets him apart. He brings a certain seriousness and intensity to every practice, every conditioning session.
“He’s extremely competitive in practice,” Mclauchlin said. “That guy works harder than guys who are committed, guys who aren’t committed. It checks out why he’s going where he’s going. He’ll go to the facility and hit for another hour after practice ends.
“That’s why he’s gonna go really far. That’s what a lot of people don’t see. They see it on the field, but they don’t see all the stuff he does to get himself there.”
Curtis coach Bryan Robinson said Plyler was going to make his impact felt one or another. When Curtis played Sumner in a two-game series on consecutive days, Plyler racked up several hits in the first game. When they pitched around him in the second game, Plyler went to the mound and threw five scoreless innings against Curtis.
“We walked him three times, then he shoved it on the mound,” Robinson said, laughing. “He’s the best player on the best team in the state.”
As a pitcher, Robinson said he’s the example he’d want young pitchers to emulate.
“Go set the tone early in the count, pound the zone with your fastball, then it frees off to the breaking ball, his secondary off-speed pitches,” Robinson said. “There hasn’t been a time I’ve seen him where he doesn’t have command of those secondary pitches. That’s what separates him from other guys in the area.”
Plyler is a 5-tool player (hitting for average, hitting for power, running speed, throwing arm strength and fielding ability). Or a 6-tool player, as Mclauchlin likes to say.
“Being everything with being a greater kid,” he said.
There were plenty of highlights over the course of the season, culminating in Plyler’s start against Kamiakin in the 4A state tournament semifinals in Everett. Plyler dominated, tossing six innings, allowing one hit, no runs and striking out 10.
“I was dominant today,” he told the TNT after the game, matter-of-factly. “It’s awesome, man. The whole season, working with my boys, I think we deserve to be here.”
Plyler has one more high school season before either heading to Wake Forest or going pro. That decision will become more clear over the next year, depending on where Plyler is projected to go in the 2027 MLB Draft.
For now, he’s focused on adding some bulk to his frame and fine-tuning his command.
“His goal this summer, gain 10-15 pounds in the summer, then 10 more pounds before baseball season,” Mclauchlin said. “Those doubles off fence, doubles in the gap, he’ll have a chance to put them out now. 92 (miles per hour fastball) will play 94-95.”
