There are several college sluggers near the top of early 2024 MLB Draft boards, familiar names such as Nick Kurtz (Wake Forest), Jac Caglianone (Florida), Charlie Condon (Georgia) and Tommy White (LSU).
But after three weeks, the nation’s leader in home runs is a 5-foot-9 freshman outfielder from Georgia Tech. Drew Burress introduced himself to college baseball with two home runs in the Yellow Jackets’ season opener against Radford and then made national headlines last Wednesday when he set a school record with four home runs in a 10-0 win against Georgia State.
Through 10 games, Burress has nine home runs and is hitting .419 with 20 RBIs and 13 runs scored.
Burress was a highly regarded prospect — ranked No. 18 nationally by Perfect Game — coming out of Houston County High School in Georgia, but he was intent on going to college and was not picked in the 2023 MLB Draft.
Drew Burress hit a Georgia Tech record 4 home runs in one game 🤯 pic.twitter.com/3OytADp1hb
— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) February 28, 2024
Around the horn
For all of Burress’ early-season exploits, Condon has been the best collegiate hitter in the state of Georgia — and maybe the entire country. The redshirt sophomore is hitting .568 with eight home runs and 15 RBIs. He also has five doubles and one triple and is slugging an astounding 1.273.
The Bulldogs are 10-1 under first-year coach Wes Johnson after taking two games from Georgia Tech over the weekend. Friday’s game was suspended with Georgia leading 9-3 and will be resumed at a later date.
It’s still very early, but Duke’s Jonathan Santucci is solidifying his status as a likely first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. The junior left-hander has yet to allow an earned run or an extra-base hit in 17 innings in starts against Indiana, Northwestern and Akron. He has 31 strikeouts and has walked seven while giving up 10 hits (.169 batting average against).
Santucci’s sophomore season was cut short by a fractured elbow three weeks into the ACC schedule. In seven starts, he went 2-2 with a 4.30 ERA while striking out 50 in 29 1/3 innings.
Next Friday, Santucci will face off against Wake Forest ace Josh Hartle in a huge early-season ACC showdown.
LSU moved Luke Holman into the Friday night role this week, and the Alabama transfer allowed only three hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the Tigers’ 6-3 win over Texas before a boisterous crowd of 24,927 at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Holman has not allowed an earned run through 18 innings and has given up only eight hits with 30 strikeouts and two walks. Thatcher Hurd, a former UCLA transfer who began the season as the Friday starter, gave up seven hits and two earned runs in five innings in Sunday’s 10-5 win over Texas State.
Florida secured a series win over Miami in Coral Gables with an 8-4 win on Sunday. The best news for the Gators: Caglianone struck out 11 and allowed only three hits in six scoreless innings in his second start of the season.
Cags also did some work at the plate, going 3-for-5 with his fourth home run of the season. Alabama transfer Colby Shelton hit two home runs and now has a team-high five to go along with a .325 average.
It’s all about the U(F) 🐊🙌 pic.twitter.com/yhNTm4wj9v
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) March 3, 2024
Clemson swept a two-game series from South Carolina in what is arguably the best rivalry in college baseball. The Tigers won 5-4 in 12 innings on Saturday at Segra Park in Columbia (home of the Carolina League Columbia Fireflies) and then won 5-4 on Sunday at Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Friday’s game at Founders Park in Columbia was postponed due to weather.
The Tigers, 9-1 in Erik Bakich’s second season, host Kansas State on Wednesday in an intriguing midweek matchup.
UCF has been an early-season surprise. The Knights are 8-1 after taking two of three from rival South Florida in Orlando over the weekend. They also have two impressive midweek road wins, at Miami and FAU.
On Sunday, Dom Stagliano, Kyle Kramer and Chase Centala combined to give up only two hits in a 1-0 victory over the Bulls. Stagliano, who was making his first start of the year, has allowed only three hits and one earned run while striking out 13 in 9 1/3 innings.
UCF heads to Gainesville to play Florida on Wednesday and then dives into Big 12 play with a trip to Oklahoma next weekend.
USC exceeded expectations in 2023 under first-year coach Andy Stankiewicz, going 17-13 in the Pac-12 and coming perhaps one game short of reaching a Regional for the first time since 2015.
Year 2 is not going well. The Trojans are now 2-8 after losing three games (two to TCU and one to Texas A&M) at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend. Outfielder Austin Overn, a preseason All-Pac-12 pick who led the nation with 14 triples in 2023, is hitting .150 with only one extra-base hit.
The Trojans do not have a true home park this year due to construction on a new on-campus stadium They will play home games at OC Great Park in Irvine, Page Stadium at Loyola Marymount and Cicerone Field at UC Irvine.
Florida State improved to 10-0 with three wins at the First Pitch Invitational in Greenville, S.C. The Seminoles, picked by several coaches to be among the most improved teams in the nation in 2024, beat Illinois (13-7), Michigan State (11-2) and Western Michigan (8-3).
FSU had defeated only one team with a winning record (Western Michigan is 6-5), but this is still an encouraging start in the second season under Link Jarrett.
Sophomore third baseman Cam Smith, as expected, has been the offensive star for the Noles. He is hitting .478 with two home runs and 12 RBIs. On the mound, sophomore left-hander Jamie Arnold is 3-0 and has not allowed an earned run in 17 innings.
The Noles are one of five undefeated teams in the nation through three weeks, joining TCU (12-0), Texas A&M (11-0), Louisiana Tech (11-0) and UC Irvine (9-0). In a strange early-season schedule quirk, TCU has already played five teams from the Pac-12 and has eight wins against the soon-to-be-dismantled league.
And finally
• Arkansas’ Hagen Smith followed up his brilliant performance against Oregon State (17 strikeouts in six scoreless innings) by allowing one hit and striking out 12 in six innings in a 5-1 win over Murray State on Friday Night. Smith gave up a home run to lead-off hitter Drew Vogel and then retired 18 of the next 19 batters (with 12 strikeouts).
• Speaking of strikeouts: Winthrop senior right-hander Riley Huge struck out 20 batters and allowed no earned runs and one hit in 7 2/3 innings in an 8-0 win over Maine on Saturday. Huge leads the nation with 37 strikeouts.
• Wake Forest’s lineup has received a nice boost from Ball State transfer Adam Tellier. With Kurtz off to a slow start (.237, two home runs), Tellier, a fifth-year senior, has been the most productive bat for the top-ranked Deacons. The third baseman is hitting .390 with five home runs and five doubles.
• UNLV got off to a good start in its Mountain West opener on Friday night. The Running Rebels scored 16 runs in the bottom of the first inning — and batted around twice! — en route to a 23-5 win.
Here’s every single time we crossed the plate in the bottom of the first, setting a UNLV record in runs in a single inning! 🏃♂️ #BEaREBEL #SCtop10 pic.twitter.com/B56qNMkMt3
— UNLV Baseball ⚾️ (@unlvbaseball) March 2, 2024
• Vanderbilt freshman Cam Kozeal went 14-for-24 with two home runs and 11 RBIs to lead the Commodores to a 5-0 week, including three wins at the Astros Foundation Classic in Houston. On Sunday, the Commodores rallied from an 11-3 deficit to beat Texas 14-11.
• Remember that note last week about the Texas pitching staff throwing three shutouts over Cal Poly last week? Well, in three games in Houston — losses to LSU, Texas State and Vanderbilt — the Longhorns gave up 31 runs (26 earned) and allowed 27 hits.
• Pitt had a nice weekend in Las Vegas, beating Oklahoma (19-9) and Cal (19-7) to improve to 8-1 (Saturday’s game vs. Ohio State was canceled). The Panthers have been competitive in the ACC in recent years but have yet to break through and earn an NCAA Tournament invite. The program has not played in a Regional since 1995.
• Dallas Baptist had a productive week. The Patriots went 3-1, with a home win over Oklahoma State on Tuesday and neutral-site wins over Arizona (4-3) and Alabama (7-5 in 12 innings) over the weekend. DBU, now 10-1, lost to Indiana 9-7 on Saturday.
• The competition has been soft (to be kind), but Texas Tech has averaged 19.3 runs in its current six-game winning streak (three over Texas Southern, three over Gardner-Webb). For the season, the Red Raiders are 8-2, with neutral-site losses to Tennessee and Oregon State.
(Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech Athletics)
