Being a Massillon quarterback helped Aidan Longwell succeed in baseball at Kent State
Forgive Aidan Longwell if the bright lights don’t get to him as the Mid-American Conference Tournament gets underway for the Kent State baseball team.
Longwell has long been under the microscope, so a game of pitch and catch won’t bother him one bit.
You see, the first baseman for the regular-season champion Golden Flashes used to be the quarterback at Massillon, so playing in front of a packed house at Schoonover Field is nothing compared to the 15,000 who packed Tiger Stadium on a Friday night.
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“I think that helped a lot,” Longwell said. “Playing in front of the big crowds, I am used to that. I don’t get fazed anymore. It’s second nature to me. That mentality helps a lot. I try to be a leader out there. I try to lead by example and just take control. That’s what a quarterback does. That translates to the baseball field, too.”
It’s hard to argue that thinking for the top-seeded Golden Flashes, who open MAC Tournament play Wednesday against fourth-seeded Western Michigan.
Longwell holds Massillon career records in passing yards (7,705), completions (484), attempts (785), completion percentage (60.9) and touchdown passes (84).
Longwell took the Tigers to the state semifinals in 2017 and followed that up with back-to-back championship appearances as a junior and senior.
Those teams went 38-5 and set a bar for the current group to replicate.
“I don’t think I have coached somebody who is as focused as he is on a daily basis,” Kent State baseball coach Jeff Duncan said. “He is the first player on the field. He has his whole pregame routine every single day. He is just a locked in individual. It is pretty impressive.”
It's hard not to be in awe of what the junior has done this season for the Flashes.
Major League Baseball could be in Aidan Longwell's future
He’s projected to go anywhere from the third to fifth round in July’s MLB Draft and has the numbers to back up that prognostication.
Longwell is hitting .415 with 70 RBIs. Both are good enough to put him in the top 20 in the nation.
He’s got an on-base percentage of .488 and an OPS of 1.156.
Add 20 doubles, 10 home runs, 55 runs scored and a .668 slugging percentage and it’s hard to argue his leadership abilities at Kent State.
What's even more impressive is the fact he hasn't made a single error all season.
“We always refer to him as QB one,” Flashes third baseman Kyle Jackson said. “We like to mess around with him and tell him that he should have been a football player, but he’s a baseball player at heart and he loves to be here. He loves the team. He loves to bring it every day. He’s just a great competitor.”
With Aidan Longwell in the middle, Kent State baseball is rocking
Jackson is also happy to hit behind Longwell as Kent State pushes toward a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018.
“It’s a blast being behind him,” Jackson said. “Knowing that he comes to work every day and knows exactly what he’s going to do and what he’s going to bring to the team, we all trust him. He knows that he can trust us. We can do anything with him. He’s a Swiss army knife. He just does everything.”
For those wondering why football wasn’t in the cards for 6-foot-1, 205-pounder, baseball has always been the 21-year-old’s first love.
Longwell has dreams of playing in the show, for now the goal is to win a national title.
“I am just taking it one day at a time,” he said. "(I am) just worrying about one at-bat at a time and just getting better every day and playing with confidence and having fun while I am doing it.”
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent State first baseman Aidan Longwell has always been a true leader
