All Yellow Jackets

Eight Georgia Tech Baseball Players Earn All-ACC Academic Team

Georgia Tech Baseball had eight players earn All-ACC Academic Team

Jackson Caudell

Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress
Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress / Georgia Tech Baseball

Georgia Tech baseball earned eight selections to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 2024 All-ACC Academic Team, the league announced Friday.

Requirements for selection to the All-ACC Baseball Academic Team are a 3.0 grade-point average for the previous semester and a 3.0 cumulative average during one’s academic career. In addition, position players must compete in at least 50 percent of their team’s contests and pitchers in 20 percent.

Representing the Yellow Jackets on the All-ACC Academic Team:

Carson Ballard, Biomedical Engineering
Dawson Brown, Business Administration
Drew Burress, Business Administration
Carson Kerce, Business Administration
Michal Kovala, Business Administration
Tate McKee, Business Administration
John Giesler, Master of Real Estate Development
Ben King, Business Administration

For Burress, he has continued to rack up accolades and honors after having one of the best seasons in Georgia Tech history. He was named to Baseball America’s All-America First Team, it was announced on Friday.

He became just the 10th freshman position player and 24th freshman overall to earn first-team honors in the organization’s 42 seasons of selecting the top collegiate baseball players. He’s the first freshman first-team hitter since Seth Beer (Clemson) in 2016. Eight of the nine freshman first-teamers previously went on to be first-round MLB Draft picks as well.

Burress was named Perfect Game’s National Freshman of the Year, an NCBWA First-Team All-American, and was selected to ABCA/Rawlings First-Team All-Southeast Region. Ellis also pulled in First-Team All-Southeast Region honors, making the Yellow Jackets one of just three Atlantic Coast Conference programs to earn multiple first-team all-region selections, joining Wake Forest and Florida State.

Burress led Georgia Tech in a myriad of categories, including average (.381), home runs (25) and RBI (67), becoming the 12th Yellow Jacket to win Tech’s triple crown. Burress is the first to accomplish the feat since Matt Gonzalez in 2016. His 25 home runs set the Tech freshman record and fell one shy of tying the single-season record (Kevin Parada, 2022).

In addition to his team-leading average, the NCBWA Freshman Hitter of the Year finished with 15 doubles and three triples and drew more walks (58) than strikeouts (37) for a .512 on-base percentage and an OPS of 1.333. He also finished 8-for-10 in stolen bases and set the Georgia Tech record for most assists by an outfielder, gunning down 10 base-runners from center field this season.

Burress led all Division I freshmen in six statistical categories to finish the regular season (home runs, home runs per game, slugging, total bases, walks and walks per game), while ranking Top 3 nationally in 11 categories. He also led ACC freshmen in eight categories to wrap up the year (runs and on-base percentage), while also ranking second in RBI, RBI/game and batting average to earn first-team all-conference honors.

In just his first year on The Flats, Burress has racked up a plethora of accolades. In addition to all-conference and ACC Freshman of the Year honors, Burress was also named Perfect Game Third-Team All-American, Perfect Game Freshman First-Team All-American, a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy.

(All stats and info courtesy of Georgia Tech Athletics)

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Jackson Caudell
JACKSON CAUDELL

Jackson Caudell has been covering Georgia Tech Athletics For On SI since March 2022 and the Atlanta Hawks for On SI since October 2023. Jackson is also the co-host of the Bleav in Georgia Tech podcast and he loves to bring thoughtful analysis and comprehensive coverage to everything that he does. Find him on X @jacksoncaudell

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