Pennridge’s Danny Long is the Reporter’s 2016 Player of the Year

There are plenty of distinctions used to describe athletes. A football player can be categorized as a big-play threat, a hockey player as a sniper or a sprinter as electrifying.

But regardless of the sport, there is one distinction that stands above the rest — a winner.

That’s the best word to describe Pennridge’s Danny Long.

He helped the Rams basketball team to back-to-back Suburban One League Continental Conference championships in his junior and senior seasons and won a state playoff game — a Pennridge first — as a junior.

But it’s baseball where Long really shines. He led Pennridge to its first district championship in 29 years and for that, he is the Reporter’s 2016 Baseball Player of the Year.

“Just go out there and compete,” Long said of his legacy as a winner at Pennridge. “Whether you’re winning by 10, losing by 10 or having a bad game, just competing — that’s what I tried to do this year, especially being a leader. No matter what you’re doing, what the score is, just compete. And that ended up working for us.”

Long did it all for the District 1 Class AAAA champs as a senior. He played shortstop and hit in the leadoff spot, sporting a .286 batting average against SOL Continental opponents. He hit two home runs and one triple, knocked in eight runs and scored five in Pennridge’s 14 league games.

On the mound, he threw 32 innings. He struck out 52 batters to just 13 walks and 17 hits. He went 4-1 with six saves.

“I pitched in relief a little bit (junior) year,” Long said, “but I think I threw a lot more innings this year than I had last year. It’s definitely a role I enjoyed — closing games out. I love to have the ball in my hand to decide the end of the game.”

His ERA was 1.17 overall and 0.67 against SOL Continental foes.

Perhaps his biggest pitching performance of the season came in the district final against Council Rock North. Long recorded a five-out save and closed out the final inning with the tying run on first and winning run at the plate in North’s best hitter.

The Rams had quite the run through the district. As the No. 17 seed, they were the lower seed in every game they played, including a second-round win over No. 1 seed Interboro.

“We cherished the role of being underdogs this season,” Long said. “Coach (Tom Nuneviller) had named us the road warriors and the green jerseys got us a lot of wins. That was something that was pretty special for us.”

A three-year varsity starter, Long stepped into a much bigger leadership role as a senior in 2016.

“Going in (to senior year) coach had kind of said I was going to be the captain and just be a leader on the team and do whatever it takes to get guys going in the same direction,” Long said. “We talked about chemistry a lot this year, which to us is a big reason why we were successful. Keeping the chemistry as close as possible was one of the jobs coach gave me.”

This summer, Long is playing for the Ambler Brewers in the Perkiomen Valley Twilight League.

In the fall, he’ll head to Monmouth University, where he plans to major in Business.

He expects to both pitch and play the field for the Hawks.

“Loved the campus,” Long said for choosing Monmouth. “Great guys on the team, good coaches, close to home so my parents can come watch me play. Hopefully I’ll have to opportunity to get playing time my freshman year if everything goes well.”