ECU's Burleson named to Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America Team

TUSCON, Ariz. – ECU freshman Alec Burleson has been named to the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-America Team the publication announced Wednesday.

Burleson, who was the unanimous American Athletic Conference Freshman Pitcher-of-the-Year selection, appeared in 19 games making eight starts during his rookie season. The left-hander posted a 5-2 record with four saves, sported a 3.33 ERA and struck out 49 batters while walking 16 in 54.0 innings.

The Denver, N.C. native picked up his first collegiate win at Campbell (Feb. 21) after tossing three scoreless frames with a pair of strikeout in his first start. He would go on to notch additional wins against UNCW (April 3), Tulane (May 5), Cincinnati (May 12) and Connecticut (May 18). Out of the bullpen, he registered four saves ranking second on the team behind Ryan Ross. Burleson closed out games versus Charleston (May 7), Charlotte (May 9 & 10) and Elon (April 11).

Off the mound, he split time between first base and the designated hitter, where he batted .252 (26-for-103) with three doubles, 18 RBI and 13 runs scored. Burleson tallied seven multi-hit and three multi-RBI games, which included a career-best four RBI at Charlotte (March 10) in game two of a doubleheader.

Burleson is the 16th Freshman All-American in school history and fourth under head coach Cliff Godwin joining Joe Ingle (2015 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) and Dwanya Williams-Sutton (2016 Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball) and Spencer Brickhouse (2017 Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and D1Baseball). He is also the second Pirate this season to garner All-America status alongside Bryant Packard (Baseball America/First-Team, Collegiate Baseball/Second-Team and CollegeSportsMadness/Second-Team).