The Chattanooga State baseball team is ranked No. 16 in Collegiate Baseball’s NJCAA Division I preseason poll for 2017.
“Obviously we are proud and flattered to be in the preseason rankings,” said Greg Dennis, the winningest coach in school history with a 483-217 record in 14 seasons with the Tigers. “This is our 10th year of being in the national ranking in the past 12 years. It never gets old, and it is a true testimony to the guys that come in here and work so hard year in and year out.”
Chattanooga State was No. 1 in the NJCAA poll for three weeks in 2007 and No. 2 for a longer stretch in 2011, one year after reaching the Junior College World Series in Colorado.
“We have taken great pride in trying to establish this program as a strong one both in the classroom and on the ballfield,” Dennis said, pointing out that the team grade point average for the 2016 fall semester was 3.36 (on a 4.0 scale).
Arizona school Yavapai leads the Collegiate Baseball Top 20 with Chattahoochee Valley of Alabama No. 2. The only other Southeast teams ahead of Chattanooga State are Santa Fe (No. 5) and Chipola (No. 11) of Florida and Spartanburg Methodist (No. 13) of South Carolina. Dyersburg State at No. 20 joins the Tigers from the TCCAA.