LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The NFCA Junior College Leadoff Classic is back for the first time since 2019 and features a pair of national champions in the 2023 edition of the event that will take place Friday and Saturday at the South Commons Complex in Columbus, Ga.
Two-time defending NJCAA Division I champion Florida SouthWestern State College and eight-time NJCAA Division III champion Rock Valley College headline an 18-team field that includes a total of seven programs that have captured NJCAA titles.
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Florida SouthWestern State, which took home its first two national championships in 2021 and 2022, will attempt to defend its 2019 Leadoff title. The Bucs won 105 contests the last two seasons, and are 12-3 to start 2023. They head into the tournament ranked No. 3 nationally, following the release of the first NJCAA Division I regular-season poll on Monday.
Meanwhile, no NJCAA program has won more consecutive national titles than the Golden Eagles. Following its run in 2022, Rock Valley is competing as a Division II program for the first time in 2023. They come into the Leadoff at 3-1, having won three straight after dropping their opener to Spoon River. The Golden Eagles have outscored their opponents 34-6 in their first four contests, and were ranked 20th in Monday’s NJCAA Division II poll.
Five other programs – Chipola College, Indiana River State College, Jones College, Illinois Central College and Wallace State Community College-Hanceville – have won NJCAA championships. Along with Florida SouthWestern State and Rock Valley, Des Moines Area Community College (Division II), Illinois Central (Division II), North Dakota State College of Science (Division III), San Jacinto College (Division I), Triton College (Division II) and Wallace State (Division I) earned 2022 postseason bids.
Wallace State Community College-Hanceville (9-2), which is scheduled to host Central Alabama for a doubleheader on Thursday before heading to the Leadoff, is ranked fourth, right behind Florida SouthWestern State, in the NJCAA Division I poll, while Seminole State College of Florida (19-4) is 11th, San Jacinto (12-5) is 12th and Indian River (18-6) received votes this week.
Meanwhile, No. 2 Des Moines Area (4-0) tops six ranked squads from NJCAA Division II in the field, along with No. 6 Parkland (10-2), No. 8 Jones (10-2), No. 15 Pearl River (11-3), 19th-ranked Lansing (0-0), and Rock Valley. Fellow participants Triton (3-2) and Illinois Central (5-4) received votes in this week’s poll.
North Dakota SCS (6-2) comes into the tournament as the No. 2 ranked team in NJCAA Division III, having won their last five games. The Wildcats went 39-12 last year and lost 1-0 in eight innings to eventual national runner-up Corning at last year’s NJCAA Division III Championship.
Four tournament teams — Florida SouthWestern State (56), Wallace State (56), Des Moines Area (52) and Triton (50) — posted 50-plus victories last season, while four more — Rock Valley (48), Jones (44), Seminole State (43) and San Jacinto (42) — reached the 40-win mark. Seventeen of the 18 teams in the tournament had winning campaigns a year ago.
Each team in the field will play five games over two days, with Sunday built in should there be inclement weather.
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