ECU’s Burleson selected 70th overall in MLB Draft

ECU baseball's two-way player Alec Burleson was selected with the 70th overall pick of the 2020 MLB Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

He's the fourth-highest draft pick in ECU baseball history.

Regarded as one of the top two-way players in the country, he batted .375 with three home runs and 12 RBI before the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A Collegiate Baseball First-Team All-America choice in 2020, he was one of five players to start all 17 games and was a member of a squad that posted a 13-4 record and finished ranked nationally in a pair of polls. Burleson earned his fourth career AAC Player-of-the-Week accolade on March 9 after batting a team-best .667 (10-for-15) with a home run and four RBI and scoring seven times during the Pirates' weekend sweep at Charlotte. He collected at least one hit in all four games and drove in at least one run in three contests. In all, he tallied three multi-hit, two multi-run and one multi-RBI game during ECU's 4-0 week.

At the conclusion of the season, Burleson stood second on the team (among full-time starters) in batting average, registered five extra base hits and drew eight walks while striking out just three times to rank 11th nationally in toughest to strikeout (fanning once every 21.3 at-bats). The Denver, N.C. native ranked among the team leaders (top five) in nine offensive categories, led the club with 17 runs scored and tallied seven multi-hit and three multi-RBI games.

On the mound, he appeared in four games (all starts) where he owned a 2-1 record with a 4.24 ERA. Against Georgia Southern in the series opener, Burleson tossed a career-high eight scoreless frames with seven strikeouts in a 3-0 victory. He allowed 11 runs (all earned), combined on one shutout and struck out a team-best 22 batters while walking just four in 23.1 innings.