OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The start to the 2022 college baseball season is less than two weeks away and Johnson County will open the season as a top-ranked program. The Cavaliers were picked 17th in the NJCAA Division I Preseason Poll released Monday. Johnson County also comes in at No. 11 in the JUCO Baseball Blog preseason poll, and they received votes in both the preseason polls issued by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Prep Baseball Report.
In the NJCAA poll, defending national champion McLennon Community College holds the top spot followed by Central Arizona College, San Jacinto College-North, Crowder College and Walters State Community College. Kansas Jayhawk Conference East Division rival Cowley College holds the No. 7 spot.
Last season Johnson County finished 43-10 and were ranked 13th in the final NJCAA poll.
Second-year head coach Eric Horner returns 14 players from last year's squad led by designated hitter/outfielder Nick Iannantone, outfielder Quinton Hall, infielder Brevon Lee, left-handed pitcher Max Chapman, and right-handed pitchers Mikal Ashley, Danny Trehey and Rene Ramos.
Iannantone recently was one of 13 players to be selected as a 2022 preseason All-American by JUCO Baseball Blog. Last season he led the conference and ranked fourth in the NJCAA last season with a batting average of .747 (81-for-174). That average also ranks as the seventh-best ever recorded in team history. Iannantone collected 18 doubles, two triples, eight home runs, scored 62 runs and drove in 56 for the Cavaliers. He led the team in hits, doubles and tied for the lead in RBI. He also led the team with 29 multiple-hit games and tied for second with 16 multiple-RBI games.
During the season, Iannantone was named a JUCO Baseball Blog Mid-Season All-American, and later garnered first-team All-Kansas Jayhawk Conference East Division and All-Region 6 honors. Prior to the 2021 season he was ranked 148th on the 2021 Perfect Game USA Top 300 Prospect List.
Hall, who was ranked 100th on the 2021 Perfect Game USA Top 300 Prospect List, earned honorable mention all-conference last year after batting .407 (59-for-145) with 16 doubles, three triples, eight home runs, 62 runs and 54 driven in. He produced 18 multiple-hit games and 13 mutiple-RBI games. In 2020 Hall was hitting at a .462 clip (30-for-65) when COVID-19 halted the season. In 21 games he collected seven doubles, two triples, six homers, 32 runs and 23 RBI. Those numbers earned him first-team All-American by JUCO Baseball Blog.
Lee hit .378 (54-for143) with 10 doubles, four triples, four home runs, 37 runs scored and 32 driven in. He led the team and tied for fourth in the conference with 29 stolen bases. He produced 12 multi-hit games and six multi-RBI games.
Chapman was honored as a first-team all-conference and second-team all-region pitcher last year after finishing 4-2 with a save, in 13 appearances on the hill. He also had a team-high 72 strikeouts in 52.2 innings pitched and he led the starting staff with an ERA of 2.73.
Ashley made 10 appearances, nine as a starter. He logged 31.1 innings with 47 strikeouts and finished 6-0 with an earned run average of 4.02.
Trehey was the team's top closer in 2021. He made a team high 20 appearances with one start, and finished 1-1 with nine saves, which tied for second in the conference, fifth in the NJCAA and third on JCCC's season chart. He recorded 57 strikeouts, third on the staff, in 30.2 innings of work and had an ERA of 6.46.
Ramos made 11 appearances with seven starts. He finished 5-1 with 38 strikeouts in 31.1 innings pitched, with an ERA of 4.88.
Second-year head coach Eric Horner said this year's team much more well-rounded than last yaer's 43-10 team.
"We will be able produce offenesively like we did last year, but we will be able to defend and pitch a lot better this year. We made improvements in all phases of the game with the expectation to make a deeper run in the playoffs 2020." Horner said.
Johnson County will open its 2022 season on Thursday, February 3 at Dallas College-Brookhaven. After that four game series, the Cavaliers return home to host No. 4 Crowder in a four game series on Thursday, February 10 and Saturday, February 12.