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Ventura, Calif. - The Uncommitted Spotlight Series continues as we forge ahead in the 2024-2025 school year and the looming JR. High School baseball season for our '26 class. With than in mind Prep Baseball California is highlighting some of the top uncommitted class of '26 athletes. The player featured today is one of the top players in the state of California and figures prominently in our Class of 2026 Rankings. All players featured within our Uncommitted Spotlight series are ones that college coaches and fans should be keeping their eyes on over the coming months.

We invite you to get to know them through the eyes of our Prep Baseball California staff of scouts both through our in person looks at players and/or the data-backed numbers collected at our events with our partnered companies. TrackMan, Blast Motion, and Swift Performance provide comparable data to project and evaluate players. All of these systems come together to give a clear picture at what colleges will get when a players steps onto their campus.

Today, we put the spotlight on the number 79 ranked player in the 2026 class in SoCal '26 2B/SS Justin Lopez from Orange Lutheran High School. Lopez has made several appearances on the Prep Baseball California events platform including the 2022 SoCal Rising Stars Game, 2022 SoCal Underclass game, 2023 Future Games Tryout and was a member of Team California at the 2023 Prep Baseball Future games. Across all of his appearances Lopez has shown a well rounded package of tools in an athletic compact frame. This past spring he was a member of the varsity squad at Trinity League power Orange Lutheran where he contributed in a role player capacity to a team which made a run in the CIF-SS D1 playoffs and claimed the CIF D1 South Regional State title. 

Denton presents a wiry strong compact athletic build at 5'9 150 lbs. at present showing room to continue adding strength as he matures. A solid athlete who runs the 60 in around 7.1 seconds with short distance burst including a 1.68 10 yard split with a 3.99 30 yard split while reaching a top speed of 19.2 MPH. His defensive actions and present 84 MPH INF arm strength give him impact potential at the 2B position, but there is enough in the profile that if his athleticism and arm strength continue to trend upwards a move to SS is not out of the question in his future. Overall, he profiles to stick on the INF dirt with an up the middle profile on his defensive projection.

In addition to a quality INF defensive profile with up the middle long term projections Lopez adds a well rounded RH hitting profile to his collection of tools. With a sound athletic swing from the RH side which showed a solid foundation on Blast Motion including an average of 72.1 MPH of bat speed with a max of 74.8 MPH while adding in quick hands with 20.5 MPH average hand speed with a peak of 21.7 MPH showing intriguing torque in his turn with a peak of 22.1 Gs of rotational acceleration and averaged 19 Gs throughout his batting practice at the 2023 Future Games. He consistently produced some intriguing batted ball data during batting practice including raw power with a 90+ MPH max exit velocities across all his 2023 events with a peak of 93.3 and averaging between 83.2 MPH and 86.1 MPH on his exit velocity throughout his rounds. His present bat speed with torque combined with a solid approach/rhythm to his operation in the box from a lift based swing path that produces 70+% Fly ball/Line drive rates with middle of the field doubles power and pull side HR impact including a max distance of 340'. 

Coming off a year in which Lopez gained valuable experience competing against Trinity League talent with an opportunity to compete for a more prominent role on the INF and within the lineup at Orange Lutheran. Lopez has a chance to continue to raise his profile by showcasing his ability to put his quality well rounded toolset to perform in game against top end competition in the SoCal High School baseball and national baseball scene. 

College coaches and fans be sure to click on Lopez's profile to see full video and information.

Upcoming Events

Showcase	State	Date	Location
Orange County Preseason ID	CA	01/02/25	JSerra
San Diego Preseason All State (Invite Only)	CA	01/04/25	Maranatha Christian High School
Central California Preseason All State (Invite Only)	CA	01/05/25	Antelope Valley College
Central California Preseason ID	CA	01/12/25	Ventura College
North Bay Preseason ID	CA	01/25/25	Novato High School
Northern California Preseason All State (Invite Only)	CA	01/26/25	Ohlone College
East Bay Preseason ID	CA	02/02/25	Pittsburg High School

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