THE FLATS – For the first time in program history, three Yellow Jackets have been named semifinalists for the USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy presented by The Game Headwear. Junior 2B Jarren Advincula (Santa Clara, Calif. / Archbishop Mitty HS), junior CF Drew Burress (Houston County, Ga. / Houston County HS) and junior C Vahn Lackey (Suwanee, Ga. / Collins Hill HS) were each named to the list of 25 semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award and the 48 semifinalists for the Dick Howser Trophy, it was announced today.
Fan voting will again play a part in the Golden Spikes Award in 2026. Starting today, baseball fans can vote for their favorite players on GoldenSpikesAward.com to help determine the finalists. USA Baseball will announce the finalists for the award on June 10, and fan voting will once again open at GoldenSpikesAward.com to help determine the winner before closing on June 28.
Georgia Tech leads the nation with its three golden spikes semifinalists, marking the first time in program history that more than two Yellow Jackets have earned the honor. Burress becomes just the third college baseball player in history to be named a semifinalist for the third year in a row, joining Anthony Rendon (2009, 2010, and 2011) and Brendan McKay (2015, 2016, and 2017), becoming the first college outfielder ever to do so.
This is just the second time in program history that multiple Jackets have been named Dick Howser Trophy semifinalists, the other coming in 2013 when Zane Evans and Daniel Palka earned the honor. Burress is the first Yellow Jacket to ever earn the recognition over three seasons.
Drew Burress | 3x Golden Spikes Semifinalist | 3x Dick Howser Semifinalist
.373 avg | .483 OBP | .670 slug
Burress has been the best hitter in college baseball over the second half of the season (since March 28), leading the team in runs (42), hits (52 – tied with Advincula), triples (2 – tied with Advincula), extra-base hits (20), RBI (35), slugging (.804) and OPS (1.335) over the last 26 games. In that stretch, Burress has recorded multiple hits in 18 of the 26 games (69.2%), scored multiple runs in 15 (57.7%) and delivered multiple RBI in 11 (42.3%) – all team highs.
He leads the ACC with 71 runs scored, becoming the first Yellow Jacket in program history to record three-consecutive 70 run seasons. He has also hit 13 home runs this season, tying the Georgia Tech record for career home runs (57) a record set over four seasons by 1994 Golden Spikes Award winner Jason Varitek.
He is a staple on nearly all of the active career leaderboards for offense in Division I, coming into the final weekend of the regular season with the most runs scored of any active Division I player (221), the third highest slugging percentage (.728), the third most home runs (57), and the fifth highest on-base percentage (.488). His home run total is the most among non-seniors in Division I and his on-base percentage is the highest among active Power 4 players. Burress has landed himself on the program leaderboard in HRs (T-1st – 57), slugging % (2nd – .731), doubles (8th – 56), runs (6th – 221), total bases (7th – 479), batting average (17th – .362) and RBI (14th – 182).
As the first Yellow Jacket to be named a golden spikes semifinalist for three consecutive seasons, Burress has established himself as one of, if not the greatest Georgia Tech baseball player of all time.
Jarren Advincula | 1x Golden Spikes Semifinalist | 1x Dick Howser Semifinalist
.435 avg | .508 OBP | .617 slug
Advincula became the most consistently dangerous hitter in college baseball in his first season on The Flats. He leads the nation with 93 hits, averaging 1.82 per game. He enters the weekend five hits shy of the GT BBCOR era record (98 hits by Kyle Wren in 2013) and is on pace to own Tech’s first 100 hit season since Wes Hodges (106) and Tyler Green (100) back in 2005. He has gotten a hit in 34 of his last 35 games dating back to March 10 and 47 of 51 games this season. He leads the Yellow Jackets with 16 stolen bases this year while posting a .987 fielding percentage and leading all Division I 2nd basemen with a 4.18 WAR.
He is batting .435 for the season, the highest in Power 4, No. 2 in the nation and the 5th highest in program history. Should the season end today, he would have the highest batting average of any Yellow Jacket with at least 200 ABs – a record currently held by Jay Payton (.434) from back in 1994.
He is one of the hardest players to strikeout in all of college baseball, striking out just once in every 13.375 at-bats. Advincula has only struck out in 14 games this season, while recording multiple hits in 32 games and reaching base in all 51 games this season.
Vahn Lackey | 1x Golden Spikes Semifinalist | 1x Dick Howser Semifinalist
.386 avg | .460 OBP | .696 slug
Lackey enters the final weekend of the regular season as the No. 1 catching prospect in the upcoming MLB draft. He leads all Power 4 catchers in batting average (.386) and on-base percentage (.502). He has set career highs in nearly every offensive category and recorded more runs (64), extra-base-hits (29), home runs (13) and walks (40) this season than he had in his freshman and sophomore years combined.
He becomes the fourth Tech catcher to record at least 60 runs and 60 RBI in a singles season, joining Kevin Parada (2022), Matt Wieters (2006) and Jason Varitek (1993 & ’94), all first-round picks.
Lackey’s bat is only outshined by his defense behind the plate, where he has caught six runners attempting to steal and successfully picked off five baserunners with back picks. He has become the most feared catcher in the nation, with teams consistently attempting fewer stolen bases with Lackey behind the dish.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
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