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June 3, 2002
Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina junior pitcher Jared Burton is listed in Baseball America as the sixth-best pro prospect in North Carolina and is projected to be selected between the second and fifth rounds of the annual Major League Baseball draft, held on June 4.
Burton (Westminster, S.C./White Oak HS) showed marked improvement over his career a Catamount. The saw his ERA drop from 8.01 as a freshman, to 5.01 as a sophomore and to 3.76 this season. Also, he saw his strikeout numbers increase from 40 in 48.1 innings as a freshman, to 67 in 93.1 innings as a sophomore and 105 in 103 innings this past season. Burton tied for the team lead with seven wins and he paced the Cats in ERA, strikeouts, innings pitched and holding opponents to just a .256 batting average. He additionally walked just 31 batters to go along with his 105 K's this season for a 3.39 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
According to Baseball America, Burton caught the scouts attention "by excelling in outings against ACC powers Georgia Tech, Florida State and Clemson." Burton struck out seven Seminoles in six innings as WCU fell 3-0 to top-ranked Florida State in late February. Against No. 4 Georgia Tech, he fanned two in just one inning's work. He capped the regular-season with an impressive outing versus Clemson, who was ranked first nationally at the time. He gave up four runs in the first two innings, but allowed the Cats to tie the game at 4-4 through 7.2 innings as he retired 19-of-20 batters during the stretch. He ended up striking out seven Tigers in 8.2 innings. Burton also had a dominating performance on Mar. 8 when he was named Southern Conference Pitcher of the Week in a complete-game shutout at UNC Greensboro. He only allowed three hits and no Spartan advanced past second base. He additionally struck out 10 batters, while walking just one. The following week, Burton fanned 10 with just one walk in a win over Wofford. He equalled the feat with 10 K's at Davidson. In back-to-back outings versus VMI and East Tennessee, Burton did not allow a run in 13 innings pitched, surrendering just seven hits with 13 strikeouts.
This season, Burton's 105 strikeouts ranked second in the SoCon and was good enough for seventh on the WCU single-season list. He additionally ranks 10th on the WCU career strikeouts list with 212 and ninth on the WCU career list for innings pitched with 244.2.
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