Pirate Duo Earns D1Baseball All-America Accolades

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The ECU duo of sophomore Alec Burleson and junior Jake Agnos continue to rack up postseason honors as they were named D1Baseball All-Americans the online publication announced Thursday. Burleson earned his fourth first-team honor as a utility player, while Agnos became the fifth player in program history to be named to five All-America squads in the same season with his second-team selection joining Cory Scott (five in 2000), Greg Bunn (five in 2004), Ryan Wood (five in 2009) and Bryant Packard (seven in 2018).

Agnos, a fourth round selection by the New York Yankees in the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft, appeared in 17 games (all starts) where he posted an 11-3 record with a 2.29 ERA. The lefty, who became the 12th different hurler in program history to win the pitching triple crown, fanned an ECU and American Athletic Conference single-season record 145 batters while walking 43 in 102.0 innings. He also set the league career strikeout record during the opening game of the Louisville Super Regional (295) with his five versus the Cardinals surpassing Houston's Seth Romero (2015-17).

The Haymarket, Va. native combined on five shutouts and allowed 29 runs (26 earned) on 74 hits while holding opposing batters to a composite .198 batting average. Agnos set the modern day school record with 32.2 consecutive scoreless innings that ended on a wild pitch in the 2019 AAC Baseball Championships against Houston. He tallied a team-high nine quality starts (6.0 IP, 3 or less ERs) and recorded double-digit strikeouts in a contest five times with a career-best 12 against UConn in a personal-best 8.2 innings on April 8. In all, he ranked first at ECU in six pitching categories and led the AAC in seven stat columns including strikeouts looking with 58.

Off the field, Agnos was an eight-time ECU Director of Athletic Honor member, two-time AAC All-Academic selection (2017-18), First-Team Google Cloud Academic All-American (2019) and two-time academic all-district honoree (2018-19). A member of ECU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and previous member of the Athletic Leadership Living Learning Community, Agnos boasts a cumulative GPA over 3.95 at ECU while majoring in management information systems. He named the 2019 ECU Mr. Pirate at the 6th Annual Goldspys, which is presented to the male student-athlete who excels in the classroom and in athletics, while also contributing to the community. He was also selected to the 2019 Nutrien All-Academic Team at the annual Breakfast of Champions.

Agnos' 2019 Postseason Honors

First-Team Academic All-America (Google Cloud CoSIDA)
First-Team All-America (Collegiate Baseball)
First-Team All-America (NBCWA)
Second-Team All-America (Baseball America)
Second-Team All-America (D1Baseball)
Third-Team All-America (Perfect Game)
American Athletic Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year
First-Team All-American Athletic Conference selection
First-Team All-South Region (ABCA)
Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team

Regarded as one of the top two-way players in the country after being named a finalist for the 2019 John Olerud National Player-of-the-Year Award, Burleson led the Pirates outright in eight offensive categories including batting average (.370), doubles (23), hits (91), RBI (61) and multi-hit games (23), while sharing the team lead in multi-RBI contests (16) and fielding percentage (1.000). He slugged at a .573 clip to stand second on the club and belted nine homers to rank third.

On the mound, he appeared in 24 games making nine starts where he owned a 6-2 ledger with five saves and a 3.28 ERA. Burleson earned his 11th career win against Campbell in an elimination game on June 3 in the 2019 Greenville Regional after working five innings. He fanned 68 batters while walking 26 and struck out a career-high 10 batters against Monmouth on Feb. 23. The lefty allowed 22 runs (all earned) on 56 hits in 60.1 innings and held opposing hitters to a composite .246 average. In the classroom, he is a six-time ECU Director of Athletic Honor member, a 2018 AAC All-Academic selection and was a 2019 Third-Team Google Cloud Academic All-American who boasts a 3.959 cumulative GPA as a business management major.

Burleson's 2019 Postseason Honors

Third-Team Academic All-America (Google Cloud CoSIDA)
First-Team All-America (Collegiate Baseball)
First-Team All-America (D1Baseball)
First-Team All-America (NCBWA)
First-Team All-America (Perfect Game)
First-Team All-American Athletic Conference selection (outfield)
Second-Team All-American Athletic Conference selection (utility)
First-Team All-South Region (ABCA)
Greenville Regional All-Tournament Team

Agnos and Burleson are the sixth and seventh All-America selections under head coach Cliff Godwin, joining Reid Love (2015), Evan Kruczynski (2016-17), Travis Watkins (2017), Chris Holba (2019) and Bryant Packard (2019). It also marks the seventh-straight year the Pirates have had an All-American on their team dating back to 2013.

Players Mentioned

Jake Agnos

Alec Burleson

Chris Holba

Evan Kruczynski

Bryant Packard

Travis Watkins

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