Jonathan Long ready to have dominant season
LONG BEACH, Calif.- Jonathan Long was having a spectacular season for the Long Beach State (LBSU) baseball team before he suffered a season-ending leg injury. He was playing his first season of college baseball after an impressive four-year careers an infielder and pitcher at Orange High School. Long had played in 27 games, starting 26 of them when he got injured.
No one could have expected a true freshman to be so impactful for his team. Justin Long very quickly became the starting third baseman for the LBSU baseball team. The Orange County native started off his 2020-2021 season by going 1-4 against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors. That one hit was a double. Unfortunately, Long struggled for the rest of that opening four-game series. He went 0-7 in the next three games.
Everything seemed to turn around after that opening series. He went 4-14 with a walk against the CSUN Matadors in four games. Long really hit his stride in LBSU’s third series of the season against UC San Diego. After that, it seemed like he could do no wrong. In four games, he went 7-15 with one home run, five runs batted in (RBIs), four runs scored and three walks. He left that series with an impressive .308 average.
Jonathan Long ended his season with a .341 average. He showed flashes of power with his five home runs and patience at the plate with his 11 walks. He also had 16 RBIs and led his team with a .591 slugging percentage.
Long’s injury was a big loss for an already impressive LBSU team that went 28-15 and finished third in the baseball powerhouse Big West Conference.
The starting lineup for the LBSU Dirtbags has not been announced yet. I would imagine after the season Jonathan Long had, he will be the starting third baseman again. There is a possibility that he will ease his way back into that role as he is recovering from a very serious injury. Either way, this team is much better off with him in the lineup, and they should be poised for another strong year. It will also be easier for LBSU because of less limited COVID-19 restrictions this upcoming season.
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