Barton, Cloud County Picked To Win KJCCC Baseball West Division In Preseason Poll

COLBY, Kan. – A tie following a vote of the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference Baseball West Division head coaches has both Barton Community College and Cloud County Community College picked to win the 2025 KJCCC baseball west division regular season title.

Both the Cougars and T-Birds earned a total of 71 points with all nine coaches from the KJCCC west division taking part in the vote with Barton receiving three of nine first-place votes and Cloud County receiving two first-place votes. Neither team was picked to finish lower than fourth by any of the league coaches as both advanced to the NJCAA Region 6 Plains District Tournament last year with the Cougars finishing as one of the final four teams in the tournament.

Picked to finish third with 66 total points was Hutchinson as the Blue Dragons won the KJCCC west regular season title last season and earned the remaining four first-place votes as HCC will look to defend their regular season title under second-year head coach Brock Nehls. Last season, Hutchinson went 51-13 overall and 27-5 in the KJCCC while advancing to the Plains District Tournament Championship game after dropping their first game of the tournament by winning five-straight elimination games which included two games in extra innings.

The bottom half of the KJCCC west division preseason order of finish features Butler picked to finish fifth with 47 total points followed by Dodge City (38 points), Seward County (37 points), Colby (31 points), Garden City (23 points), and Pratt (21 points). Of the eight KJCCC west division teams to qualify for the NJCAA Region 6 tournament last season, five advanced to the double-elimination bracket portion of the tournament in Wichita with two of the final three teams in the tournament coming from the west division.

The action gets underway for the 2025 season on Friday, January 31st with Dodge City taking on Paris Junior College in a road doubleheader before seeing both Pratt and Seward join the mix on Saturday, February 1st. Non-conference action will take place for all nine division schools throughout February before seeing the 32-game conference slate get underway on Thursday, March 6th with each team playing a four-game series against the other eight division foes with two games at each site and running through May 3rd.

The top four teams in the final regular season standings of the west division will earn the right to host a best-of-three series against one of the teams from the east division who finish fifth through eighth in their division with the winners advancing to an eight-team double-elimination tournament that is scheduled for May 13-17. For the first time in KJCCC history, the eight-team double-elimination bracket portion of the tournament will take place at Champtown Sports Complex in Park City, Kansas with the brand-new facility set to open in March. The winner of the 2025 NJCAA Plains District Baseball Tournament will advance to the 2025 JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado May 24-31.