THE FLATS – Drew Burress (Houston County, Ga. / Houston County HS) and Mason Patel (Knoxville, Tenn. / The Webb School) have been awarded All-American status, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA announced today. Burress joins Jason Varitek and Nomar Garciaparra (1993 & ’94) as the only Yellow Jackets to ever be named 1st Team All-America by the NCBWA in back-to-back seasons while Patel earns his first-career All-America selection (2nd Team).
Burress is one of five underclassmen to make 1st Team All-America and one of two to do so out of the ACC. He is one of three Jackets in program history to repeat as an NCBWA 1st Team All-American, joining Varitek and Garciaparra – both accomplished over the 1993 and ’94 seasons.
Burress delivered a dominant 2025 season, finishing as the only player from a Power 4 conference with at least 60 RBI (62), 20 doubles (23), 50 walks (53), 15 HR (19) and 70 runs (77). He led the ACC in extra base hits (43), doubles (23) and finished 2nd in the conference in home runs (19) and runs scored (77). His .756 career slugging percentage is the best in program history with a minimum of 300 ABs (446), nearly half a point above second place, Mark Teixeira (.712 slug over 528 ABs). This season, he became the fastest Yellow Jacket in program history to reach 30 and 40 career homeruns, currently sitting at 44 career long balls, the 10th most in program history and just 13 shy of the program record. His 23 doubles this season are the most by a GT player in the BBCOR era (since 2011) and tied for the 7th most in program history.
Patel becomes the first Tech pitcher to be named All-American by the NCBWA since 2019, when Tristin English was awarded 3rd team status. He is the first pitcher to be named to one of the first two All-American teams by the NCBWA since 2016 when Matthew Gorst took home 2nd Team honors. In total, Patel is the 20th pitcher in program history to earn All-America status and the 15th of the Danny Hall era.
Patel was nothing short of dominant this season, becoming the first Yellow Jacket in program history to record at least 11 wins in a single season without ever starting a game. The Knoxville, Tenn. native was the go-to during high-leverage moments all season, often entering games with runners on or while the team was trailing, leading to a record setting 11 victories in 23 relief appearances with five saves. He was the only pitcher this season to collect double-digit wins and at least five saves, the first relief pitcher to do so from a Power 4 conference since Kevin Kopps’ Golden Spikes Award winning season in 2021 (Arkansas).
He posted a 3.34 ERA over 23 appearances and became the first Yellow Jacket pitcher this century to win each of his first six starts, finishing with an 11-2 record. His 11 wins is tied for the 13th-most in a single season in GT history and the most since Kyle Bakker posted 13 wins in 2002. Patel pitched the first 22.2 innings of the season without allowing a run and finished with career-bests in wins (11), saves (5), innings pitched (70.0), strikeouts (64) and opponent’s batting average (.223).
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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