MCC Baseball Team Ranked Eighth in NJCAA Pre-season Poll

The NJCAA Division III baseball pre-season poll was released on January 28 with Manchester Community College in the No. 8 slot. The Cougars won a program-best 30 games in 2010 and made their third consecutive trip to the DIII World Series in Tyler, TX last May.

“It was nice to be recognized for our accomplishments on the field last year,” Chris Strahowski said. “We are graduating a lot of players. I hope we can live up to the expectations.”

Strahowski is entering his twelfth season (191-148-3) at the college and will have NJCAA All-American lefty Kevin Madera (8-0, DIII leading 1.40 ERA) and Adam Scanlon (6-3, 3.97) among 10 returning players.

Defending national champion Gloucester County College (N.J.) enters the 2011 season with the No. 1 ranking in the poll. The Cougars are scheduled to play a doubleheader at Gloucester in Sewell, NJ on March 19.
MCC also travels to No. 7 Montgomery-Germantown and No. 8 Brookdale CC as part of ambitious 56-game schedule slated to open on February 26 with a doubleheader against CC of Rhode Island on the artificial field at Cheney Tech.

Perennial DIII powers Tyler Junior College (Texas), Joliet Junior College (Ill.), Riverland Community College (Minn.) and Herkimer County Community College (N.Y.) round out the top five of the preseason poll.