Georgia Tech Baseball: Yellow Jackets Outfielder Drew Burress Named The Nation's Top Sophomore Player

Drew Burress burst onto the scene for Georgia Tech as a freshman last season, instantly becoming one of the nation's top players. He is back for bigger and better things in 2025 and was named the nation's top sophomore by Perfect Game today.

Nobody better 🫡@PerfectGameUSA has named @drew_burress08 the No. 1 sophomore in college baseball headed into the 2025 season.

📰 https://t.co/wtBlchJiu7 #StingEm🐝 x #WreckHavoc pic.twitter.com/nHBXrJXBBK
— Georgia Tech Baseball (@GTBaseball) January 13, 2025

The publication rated Burress as the top sophomore in the sport after being one of three to award him national freshman of the year honors last year, along with D1 Baseball and the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) – joining Mark Teixeira in 1999 (Collegiate Baseball) and Derek Dietrich in 2008 (Rivals.com) as the only national freshmen of the year in program history.

Burress and the rest of the 2025 Yellow Jacket baseball team open the season on Friday, February 14 at 4 p.m. against Old Dominion.

Burress, a native of Houston County, led Georgia Tech in a myriad of categories in 2024, 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).

His .821 slugging percentage from last season gives him the highest career slugging percentage in program history, with a minimum of 200 at bats in White & Gold. It was the 4th highest slugging percentage in a single season by a Yellow Jacket, the best since 1926 and the first .800+ slugging season in 45 years (Tommy Thompson (.811) - 1979).

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.

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