By The Long Beach State Dirtbags saw two former athletes drafted in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB Draft Thursday.
The Los Angeles Angels selected Adam Seminaris with the 141st overall pick. The 22-year-old left-handed pitcher spent three seasons with the Dirtbags, where he appeared in 40 games and started in 27 of them.
Seminaris put together a 3.58 ERA and displayed 154 strikeouts in 173 ⅔ innings pitched.
Though shortened, the 2020 season was treating Seminaris well. In 22 innings pitched, he only allowed three runs, marking an ERA of 1.23. He also struck out 36 batters in those innings.
This was not the Angel’s first Dirtbag selection. In 2004 the team drafted pitcher Jered Weaver, who earned a spot in three consecutive All-Star games from 2010-12.
The second Dirtbag selected was LJ Jones IV, who went 152nd overall to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Jones bounced back from an injury-ravaged sophomore season to a strong 2020 campaign, despite the coronavirus pandemic shutting down the season early.
Jones hit .327 overall in 14 games and blasted away two home runs to go with nine runs batted in.
Jones appeared in 42 games in his freshman season in 2018 where he had 22 runs batted in and one home run.
With two players selected, Long Beach State became the only Big West program that saw multiple players have their name called in the draft.
