OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – For the second time in the 51-year history of the Johnson County Community College baseball program is the No. 1-ranked team in the country. The Cavaliers took over the top spot in the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Poll Monday afternoon, jumping up from No. 3. JCCC was also ranked No. 1 during the 2015 season.

"Being ranked No. 1 is a great honor for our former players who laid the bath, our current players who have work their tails off and our future players who want to play for a program with a winning tradition," said head coach Eric Horner. "It is always nice to be recognized by your peers as a top program and can't thank our players enough for working hard and buying into the process." 

"We also realize that this means we are going to continue to get teams best efforts and we have to continue to be ready each and everyday," Horner said.  "We are playing 2 good programs coming up so we will see just how good we are these next 2 weeks.  We have 3 of the top 15 programs in the country in our conference so it is always a challenge to get through each and every year.  We look forward to the challenge." 

The Cavaliers are 40-8 overall and coming off a dominant four-game sweep against Labette over the weekend. JCCC outscored the Cardinals 47-to-7.

Iowa Western (39-7), the No. 1 team the past two weeks, dropped to No. 5 after splitting a series with Southwestern who had won just 11 games entering the series. Gaston (45-6), who was number one in week five, stayed at No.2 followed by Florence-Darlington Technical (44-7) and Georgia Highlands (43-7). 

JCCC is set to play a four-game home-and-home series with Cowley who fell from No. 15 to 16 this week. Johnson County will host the Tigers for two games on Wednesday, April 24, then close out the series on Saturday, April 27 in Arkansas City, Kan.