Burress only freshman on prestigious shortlist for college baseball’s top player
DALLAS – Freshman phenom Drew Burress (Houston County, Ga./Houston County) continues to add to his campaign for nation’s top freshman, being named a semifinalist for the 2024 Dick Howser Trophy, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America announced Thursday.
Burress joins the prestigious 68-member list as its only freshman and one of 14 members from the Atlantic Coast Conference. The award is given in memory of former Florida State all-American shortstop, major leaguer and manager who died of brain cancer in 1987. The trophy is regarded as baseball’s most prestigious award. Criteria for consideration of the trophy include performance on the field, leadership, moral character and courage – all qualities that were exemplified by Dick Howser’s life.
Burress arrived on the scene and was immediately one of the nation’s top freshman, hitting a team-best .376 with 14 doubles, two triples and 21 home runs for 59 RBI. With an OPS of 1.316, he’s slugging .812 with an on-base percentage of .504, having drawn more walks (47) than strikeouts (33). He also has seven stolen bases and has seven assists from center field.
Burress currently leads all Division I freshmen in six statistical categories (home runs, home runs per game, slugging, total bases, walks, and walks per game), while ranking Top 3 nationally in 11 categories. Then at the conference level, he leads ACC freshmen in nine categories (runs batted in per game, runs and on-base percentage) while also ranking second in RBI and batting average.
Leading Georgia Tech in average, home runs and RBI, the Houston County native has a chance at becoming the 12th Yellow Jacket to win Georgia Tech’s triple crown. Burress would be the first to accomplish the feat since Matt Gonzalez in 2016 and would join a list that includes Mark Teixeira (1999), Mark Fischer (1997), Jay Payton (1994), Jason Varitek (1992, 1993), and Andy Bruce (1991) in the annals.
Burress joins an illustrious group of Dick Howser Trophy semifinalists at Georgia Tech, including Varitek and Teixeira, who won the award in 1994 and 2000, respectively. He also joins Zane Evans and Daniel Palka (2013), Joey Bart (2018), Kyle McCann (2019) and Kevin Parada (2022).
Finalists will be announced on Thursday, June 8 with the award being presented during the College World Series on June 13.
Buress and the Yellow Jackets will travel to finish the 2024 regular season at Florida State on May 16-18 in Tallahassee. First pitch on Thursday is slated for 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra.
