By BRYAN GRISHAM

CSCC Sports Information Director

The regular season is just a distant memory for the Cleveland State baseball team as coach Mike Policastro and his Cougars prepare for the TCCAA/NJCAA Region VII Tournament to be held in Columbia, Tennessee on the campus of Columbia State Community College starting on Friday and winding up with the Championship game next Thursday.

Cleveland State, ranked 24th in the latest NJCAA poll, will enter the tournament with a second seed tucked neatly into their bat bag and will open play on Saturday at 2:00 Eastern time against the winner of the Chattanooga State (7th seed) and Motlow State (10th seed) play-in game on Friday. The Senators of Walters State captured the top seed heading into the tournament with an outstanding conference mark of 21-2, an overall record of 44-9 and are ranked 5th in the latest poll. The Senators will play Saturday at 8:00 Eastern against the winner of Southwest Tennessee (8th seed) and Roane State (9th seed) play-in game on Friday.

In other first round games, third seeded Jackson State will take on the sixth seeded Pioneers of Volunteer State, while the fifth seeded Dyersburg State Eagles will play fourth seeded and host team Columbia State.

Most experts will tell you that the Cougars were a surprise team in the conference race this season as there were a lot of question marks coming into the season.

"Going into the season we didn't expect to end up as the second seed or with a 36-16 record and an 18-9 Conference mark because we were so young and had very few players coming back with a lot of experience," explained Policastro. "The guys have good team chemistry, they get along and seem to enjoy playing ball with each other and that is a big part of it. We have hit the ball well at times this year and you got to have that formula to be successful."

The Cougar pitching staff was extremely consistent this year as they led the league in team ERA at 3.58

"Our pitching has definitely been a bright spot this year," said Policastro. "Last year our hitting carried our pitching a lot of the time and this year it has been the opposite a lot of the time. Jay Bolen, Ben Booker and Travis Tingle have all been outstanding and for the most part, very consistent this year starting in our conference games. Chad Fromm has come in and give us a big lift out of the bullpen along with Phil Mariani and then Chris Anselmo as the closer along with several others at times, so we basically rode our sophomore pitching most of the year. We feel that everytime we go out there that our pitchers are going to keep us in the game and give us a chance to win and that's really all you can ask of them."

Coach Policastro knows full well that when you get to tournament time that anything can and usually does happen as you can throw out the regular season records and results because in Region VII anyone can get hot and make noise in the tournament.

"Walters State is the team to beat, they are a real good team, but in this conference a lot of teams can beat you if you don't play well.," stated Policastro. "We are happy with the two seed and after we got off to such a good start, we pretty much made that our goal. Now that the tournament is ready to start, it's a whole new season and if we play like we did for much of the season, we feel good about our chances. We just have to relax and go out and play. At tournament time, you just have to play for the next day, if you can win today you play tomorrow and that's all we're trying to do."