Itawamba Community College will open its 2010 baseball campaign tomorrow against Southwest Tennessee as the nation’s ninth-ranked squad. The defending state champion Indians have finished among the country’s top five in the last two final polls of the year by the NJCAA.
“I guess the bulls-eye got even bigger on our backs now with the pre-season top 10 ranking,” said ICC head coach Rick Collier, who has won the north division title in six of his first seven years at the helm of the program. “But at the same time, this ranking shows how hard we work at ICC and the respect our program generates to be listed among the nation’s best.”
Collier added he will start Auburn signee Will Irvin of Bolivar, Tenn. and Tupelo’s Joseph Koon, a Southeastern Louisiana signee, on the hill tomorrow against the visitors from Memphis. The doubleheader’s first pitch is scheduled for noon at Crubaugh Field.
ICC is the only Mississippi community college ranked in the NJCAA’s pre-season poll.
