THE FLATS β Postseason accolades continue to stream in for Georgia Tech baseball as Drew Burress (Houston County, Ga./Houston County) and Matthew Ellis (Waddy, Ky./Shelby County (Indiana)) were both lauded for their impressive seasons on Wednesday.
Burress was named Perfect Gameβs 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.
ππππ/ππππππππ πππ-ππππππ
π @drew_burress08
π @matthew_ellis35#WreckHavoc x #StingEm pic.twitter.com/Tq6BQhLJWD— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) June 12, 2024
En route to a second-team all-ACC honor, Ellis worked as both catcher and a designated hitter for Tech this season. Ellis was one of the hottest hitters in the league over the final two months of the season to push his average to .310 overall with 67 hits, 12 doubles and 16 home runs. Ellis caught fire as Tech made their run in the month of April, hitting a blistering .403 with 25 hits, five doubles and eight home runs for a gaudy 30 RBI for the month to help catapult the Jackets to an NCAA Tournament berth.
ππππππππ π πππππππ ππ πππ ππππ@drew_burress08 continues to rack up the awards, earning @PGCollegeBall's top freshman honor!#WreckHavoc x #StingEm pic.twitter.com/wnOLOAH3u0
— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) June 12, 2024
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Keep 'em comin! @drew_burress08 is the lone freshman to make @NCBWA First-Team All-America πͺ#WreckHavoc x #StingEm pic.twitter.com/KbjPHBJ0X9
— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) June 12, 2024
Burress, a native of Houston County, led Georgia Tech in a myriad of categories, including average (.381), home runs (25) and RBI (67), becoming the 12th Yellow Jacket to win Techβs 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.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Techβs 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of the development of Yellow Jackets that thrive academically at the Institute and compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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