When a multi-sport athlete chooses baseball over college, usually it's with the idea of going directly into professional baseball.

Kyle Long might be the first football prospect of his stature to choose college baseball over college football.

Long, a junior at St. Anne's-Belfield School in Charlottesville, made that decision after returning from a weekend visit to Florida State.

Long, a 6-foot-7, 280-pound offensive and defensive lineman, was rated the No. 1 junior football prospect in Virginia by The Roanoke Times. He is the son of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long and brother of Virginia defensive lineman and preseason All-America candidate Chris Long.

UVa was among dozens of schools that had offered football scholarships to Kyle Long, but the Cavaliers had not extended a baseball offer. Long is a left-handed pitcher and plays first base at STAB.

Long wasn't on the virginiapreps.com list of the top 20 junior baseball prospects in the state, but is expected to be in the 15-20 range on the revised list, editor Zirkle Blakey said.

If so, another revision might be in order, STAB baseball coach Alan Swanson said.

"When our players make their decision, we don't talk about the other schools they were considering," Swanson said, "but Kyle had many, many offers from baseball. He had others offers from schools that had been to Omaha [for the College World Series] recently.

"I've never seen a kid hit like he does and I'm 55. Kyle has unlimited potential for baseball. He's a line-drive hitter with power and runs under seven [seconds] for 60 yards. He's a low-90s thrower."

Swanson swears by STAB's schedule and offers little insight into UVa's decision not to offer Long.

"I can't address why not," said Swanson, who noted that Virginia coach Brian O'Connor and two of his assistants have been at STAB practices. "We play five state champions this year. We aggressively seek the hardest teams we can find. We go to Florida. At some point this year, we faced seven kids who signed with D-I teams. If somebody plays a harder schedule, I don't know who it is."

n The last football prospect of Long's stature to pick baseball was quarterback Jon Fulton of GW-Danville. Fulton was rated the No. 4 junior in Virginia following the 2001 season.

Fulton eventually signed a baseball letter-of-intent with Virginia Tech during the fall of 2002. His George Washington teammate Kenny Lewis Jr. signed a football letter-of-intent with Tech later that winter; then, both Fulton and Lewis signed professional baseball contracts.

Both Fulton and Lewis were third-round picks in the 2003 draft -- Fulton by the Florida Marlins and Lewis by the Cincinnati Reds.

Fulton is in his fourth season at the Class A level, where he twice has had 11 home runs in a season but has not batted higher than .254.

Lewis showed potential as a base stealer in the Reds' chain but left baseball after two years and joined the Virginia Tech football team last January.

Reynolds listed

Former UVa basketball star J.R. Reynolds, whose Roanoke Catholic jersey will be retired Monday as part of J.R. Reynolds Day festivities in Roanoke, is showing up on numerous mock drafts.

Draftexpress.com has Reynolds going to Golden State with the 16th pick in the second round.

Reynolds' teammate, junior guard Sean Singletary, wasn't on that list. Ex-Cavalier Derrick Byars of Vanderbilt was listed as an early second-round pick, and former Hokies guard Zabian Dowdell was projected to go in the middle of the second round.

Local update

Freshman Adam Webb from Magna Vista has the low stroke average for the Longwood men's golf team, headed to Division I regional play in Baton Rouge, La. Webb won three tournaments and posted six top-five finishes and nine top-10 finishes en route to a school-record 72.78 stroke average.

n Cari Wooldridge, a first-team All-Timesland infielder last year for Liberty High School in Bedford, has won 14 games as a freshman pitcher at Winthrop and was named most valuable player for the Big South tournament after a 2-0 victory over Radford in the championship game. Winthrop is headed to Knoxville, Tenn., for Division I NCAA regional action.

n Lauren Snead, a freshman pitcher from Lord Boteourt, has a 15-9 record and a team-high 148 strikeouts in 165 ²₃ innings for UVa-Wise, which is headed to the NAIA national championships after winning last week's Region XII title. Freshman Amber Harvey from Bath County had a key single in the title game against Milligan.

n Brittany Bongrazio, a four-year letter-winner on the girls' soccer team at Patrick Henry, has signed a letter-of-intent with Bluefield College.