Steve Carpenter -HCC Sports Information
Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Winners of 13-straight games and coming off a dominating sweep of Seward County, the Hutchinson Community College baseball team earned its first NJCAA Top 10 ranking since 2014 on Tuesday.

Hutchinson was ranked No. 10 in the first regular-season NJCAA Division I Baseball Rankings of 2017. The Blue Dragons were in the receiving votes list in the preseason rankings.

The Blue Dragons last national rankings came in the final regular-season poll of 2014 when the Blue Dragons were ranked No. 10. The last time the Blue Dragons were ranked in the NJCAA Top 10 was a No. 8 ranking on March 25, 2014

The Blue Dragons are off to a 13-2 start to the season and swept their Jayhawk Conference-opening series on Sunday at Seward County, outscoring the Saints 56-12 and pounding out 16 home runs in the series.

Johnson County (13-3) is the only other Jayhawk Conference team to be ranked in the Top 25. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 17. Neosho County is receiving votes in the latest rankings.

Chipola is ranked No. 1 and has 8 of the 9 first-place votes. Walters State is No. 2, followed by Dyersburg state, Gulf Coast State and McLennan.

The Blue Dragons are at Seminole State for a 6:30 p.m. game on Wednesday in Seminole, Okla. The Dragons will play their first conference series at Hobart-Detter Field against the Colby Trojans with a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. each day.