Career: Selected in the second round (pick 70) by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2020 MLB First-Year Player Draft ... Started 107 of 116 playing four different positions (1B, DH, LF, RF) … Following sophomore season (2019) was named to five All-America teams (first-team: ABCA, Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball, NCBWA and Perfect Game) … Earned 2020 First-Team All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball as a utility player ... Third-Team Academic All-America selection (Google Cloud CoSIDA) in 2019 … Finalist for 2019 John Olerud National Player-of-the-Year Award … First-Team All-South Region selection by ABCA (2019) … Greenville All-Regional Team selection (2019) … Earned First-Team All-AAC honors as an outfielder and was a second-team selection as a utility player (2019) … Named 2019 Offensive Jungle MVP … Earned First-Team Freshman All-America honors (Collegiate Baseball) in 2018 … Named American Athletic Conference Rookie Pitcher-of-the-Year (2018) … Four-time AAC Hitter-of-the-Week and five-time honor roll selection (career) … Named Perfect Game National Player-of-the-Week (Feb. 25, 2018) … Earned Midseason All-America honors from D1Baseball and Perfect Game (2018) … Earned ECU Student-Athlete-of-the-Month accolades in February 2019 … Posted a .341 career batting average (141-for-413) which stands 11th on ECU’s all-time career charts … Hit 12 home runs, drove in 91 and scored 68 times … Laced 28 doubles and tallied 205 total bases … Walked 33 times and struck out just 40 in his career (once every 10.3 at-bats) … Tallied 19 sacrifices (seven sac hits, 12 sac flies) … Swiped 8 of 10 bases … Fielded at a .994 clip with 416 putouts, 49 assists, while committing just three errors … Registered 43 multi-hit and 23 multi-RBI games … Recorded six career game-winning RBI … Seven of 12 career home runs came against AAC opponents … On the mound, posted a 13-5 record with nine saves (10th all-time at ECU) … Combined on three shutouts … Appeared in 47 contests making 21 starts … Allowed 61 runs (53 earned) on 130 hits in 137.2 innings for a 3.46 ERA … Struck out 139 batters while walking just 46 … Held opposing hitters to a .249 career composite average … Helped ECU to 104 wins over his two-plus years … Won a pair of American Athletic Conference Championships (2018 tournament, 2019 regular season) … Part of a club that won an AAC-best 20 league games in 2019 … The Pirates hosted back-to-back NCAA Regionals in Greenville earning national seeds (No. 12 in 2018, No. 10 in 2019) … Member of the 2019 Regional Championship club that advanced to the Louisville Super Regional … Helped the Pirates finish first in the nation in total sacrifices (2018 and 2019) as well as leading the country in fielding percentage in 2020 before season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
2020: Named American Athletic Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and AAC Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year ... Named First-Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball (utility player) ... Earned CoSIDA First-Team Academic All-America honors ... One of five players to start all 17 games during the shortened COVID-19 pandemic season … Member of a squad that posted a 13-4 record and finished ranked nationally in a pair of polls … Named American Athletic Conference Player-of-the-Week (March 9) and AAC Honor Roll (Feb. 24) … Listed by D1Baseball as the 14th-best outfielder and 60th-best starting pitcher in their final player rankings … Stood second on the team (among full-time starters) with a .375 batting average (24-for-64) … Registered five extra base hits (three home runs, two doubles) … Drove in 12 runs while scoring 17 times … Drew eight walks while striking out just three times (multiple walks in a game three times) standing 11th nationally in toughest to strikeout (fanning once every 21.3 at-bats) … Tallied a pair of sac hits … Was 2-for-3 in stolen base attempts … Did not commit an error in 71 chances registering 62 putouts and nine assists playing 3 different positions (LF, 1B and DH) … Hit at a .667 clip (8-for-12) when leading off an inning … Tallied 12 2-out and seven 2-out RBI … Advanced runners at a 50.0 percent rate (18-for-36) … Stood among the team leaders (Top 5) in nine offensive categories and led the club with 17 runs scored … Registered seven multi-hit and three multi-RBI games … Had season-long eight-game hitting streak (Feb. 28-March 10) batting .516 with 3 HRs, 8 RBI and 9 runs scored … Hit home runs against High Point, Charlotte and Elon … Scored at least one run in 10 of 17 games played (multiple four times) … Stole a pair of bases at Charlotte (March 6) … Reached base in 12-straight games from Feb. 22 to March 10 … Ranked third in The American in batting average (.375) … Drove in sixth career game-winning run against Georgia Southern (Feb. 22) with an RBI double … On the mound, posted a 2-1 record in four starts with a 4.24 ERA … Combined on one shutout (Georgia Southern) where he tossed a career-high eight scoreless frames with seven strikeouts … Surrendered 11 runs (all earned) on 24 hits with 22 strikeouts to just four walks in 23.1 innings … Held opposing hitters to a .267 composite batting average … Induced 22 fly ball and 22 ground outs … Opening Day starter for second-straight year … Worked into the sixth inning in 3 of 4 contests … Tallied six or more strikeouts in 3 of 4 contests with season-best seven twice (Georgia Southern, Charlotte) … Surrendered one or less walks in 3 of 4 outings … Ranked fourth in The American in innings pitched (23.1) and tied for third in fewest walks (4) … Earned inclusion on five preseason All-America teams as a utility player (all first-team) … Preseason national player-of-the-year, John Olerud (two-way) National Player-of-the-Year, Golden Spikes Award and NCBWA Stopper-of-the-Year candidate … Named AAC Preseason Player-of-the-Year by the leagues head coaches.
 
2019: Named to five All-America teams (first-team: ABCA, Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball, NCBWA and Perfect Game) … Third-Team Academic All-America selection (Google Cloud CoSIDA) … Finalist for 2019 John Olerud National Player-of-the-Year Award … First-Team All-South Region selection by ABCA … Greenville All-Regional Team selection … Earned First-Team All-AAC honors as an outfielder and was a second-team selection as a utility player … Named 2019 Offensive Jungle MVP … Three-time AAC Hitter-of-the-Week (Feb. 25, May 6, May 13) and two-time honor roll selection (Feb. 18, April 1) … Named Perfect Game National Player-of-the-Week (Feb. 25) … Earned Midseason All-America honors from D1Baseball and Perfect Game … Earned ECU Student-Athlete-of-the-Month accolades in February 2019 … Led the team outright in eight offensive categories including batting average (.370), doubles (23), hits (91), RBI (61) and multi-hit games (29) … Shared the team lead in multi-RBI contests (16) and fielding percentage (1.000) … Slugged at a .573 clip to stand second on the club and belted nine homers to rank third … One of three players to appear in 60-plus games (63 starts) … Closed out sophomore campaign having reached base in 11-straight games, which was his second-longest streak of the season (other: 16 contests) … Had a career-long 10-game hit streak from May 18 to June 7 … Hit primarily in the third through fifth spots in the order … Also batted leadoff in 10 outings … Started games at first (9), left field (14), right field (29) and DH (11) … Six of nine home runs came in league play … Batted .374 (37-for-99) with 29 RBI and 20 runs scored against AAC foes … Scored at least one run in 28 contests (multiple eight times) … Registered at least one hit in 48 of 63 games played … Drove in a run in 37 outings … Hit home runs against Campbell, Cincinnati, Elon, Houston, Memphis (two), Tulane and USF (two) … Tallied five game-winning RBI ranking fourth on the team … Recorded double-digit putouts in a game four times with a season-high 14 against Monmouth (Feb. 24) … Started all 10 postseason games batting .378 (14-for-37) with a home run, 19 RBI and scored five runs … Hit at a .409 clip with seven RBI in the Greenville Regional … Tallied a team-best 22 two-out RBI … Reached base 41.5 percent of the time (22 of 53) when leading off an inning … Hit at a .356 clip (31-for-87) with two outs … Advanced runners at a 58.3 percent rate … Stood among the league leaders (Top 10) in nine categories and led the AAC in doubles and sac flies … Nationally ranked in the Top 50 in sac flies (8th), doubles (11th), hits (12th), batting average (48th) and RBI (48th) … On the mound, he appeared in 24 games making nine starts … Owned a 6-2 ledger with five saves while sporting a 3.28 ERA … Earned 11th career win against Campbell in an elimination game (June 3) in the Greenville Regional … Struck out 68 batters while walking 26 in 60.1 innings … Fanned a career-high 10 batters against Monmouth (Feb. 23) … Allowed 22 runs (all earned) on 56 hits … Held opposing hitters to a .246 composite batting average … Appeared in eight games in league action posting a 1-0 record with three saves … Allowed three runs (all earned) on 13 hits … Struck out 15 while walking two in 11.0 innings … Started three of four games on the mound in postseason play … Sported a 1-1 record with a 3.60 ERA … Fanned 17 and walked nine in 15.0 frames … Gave up six runs (all earned) on 17 hits … ECU sported a 7-2 record in games he started on the bump … Earned wins against Campbell, Elon, Monmouth, North Carolina, Old Dominion and UCF … Notched saves versus Houston, Maryland, Memphis, UCF and UNCW … Worked five or more innings in a start five times … Surrendered one or less runs in a contest 17 times (no runs on 10 occasions) … Issued one or fewer walks in a game 16 times (none 10 times) … Fanned at least four batters in an outing eight times (multiple punch outs 17 times) … Did not commit an error in 214 chances posting a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage … Tallied 184 putouts to go along with 30 assists … Turned six double plays … Induced 54 fly ball and 46 groundouts on the year … 2019 Summer: Played for the Collegiate National Team helping USA to an 8-6 overall record which included series wins over Chinese Taipei and Cuba … Received the USA Baseball International Performance-of-the-Year Award for his walk-off home run against Japan in a 3-2 victory … Appeared in eight games making four starts … Batted .267 (4-for-15) with a home run and three RBI … On the mound, he sported a 2.53 ERA in three outings striking out eight in 10.2 innings … Also played for the Bourne Braves in the Cape Cod Baseball League where he played in eight games batting .148 (4-for-27) with three RBI.
 
2018: Earned First-Team Freshman All-America honors (Collegiate Baseball) … Named American Athletic Conference Rookie Pitcher-of-the-Year … Two-time AAC Weekly Honor Roll selection (March 12, May 7) … Two-way player for the Pirates during rookie season … Appeared in 36 games making 27 starts (17/1B, 1/LF, 9/DH) … Batted .252 (26-for-103) with three doubles, 18 RBI and 13 runs scored … Drew 11 walks while striking out 13 times … Tallied four total sacrifices … Was a perfect 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts with a career-high two coming at No. 3 Duke (April 17) … Credited with a pair of two-out RBI … Tallied seven multi-hit and four multi-RBI games … As a starter, ECU sported a 20-6 record … Hit primarily in the third (seven times), sixth (eight) and eighth (seven) spots in the lineup … Made collegiate debut in the season opener starting at DH against Western Carolina (Feb. 16) going 1-for-4 with an RBI, run scored and walk … In weekend opener vs. the Catamounts, collected four hits, plated three runs and scored three times … Registered at least one hit in 17 of 32 games with an official at-bat … Plated at least one run and scored a run in 12 games … Laced doubles against Charlotte (March 10), No. 18 Houston (May 24) and UCF (May 22) … Tallied double-digit putouts eight times with a season-high 16 against Western Carolina (Feb. 17) … Had monster game offensively in game two of a double header at Charlotte (March 10) going 3-for-6 with four RBI and a run scored … On the mound, appeared in 19 games making eight starts … Posted a 5-2 record with four saves while sporting a 3.33 ERA … Allowed 28 runs (20 earned) on 50 hits in 54.0 innings … Struck out 49 while walking 16 … Held opposing hitters to a .244 composite batting average … Thirteen of 50 base hits allowed went for extra bases (10 doubles, three home runs) … Combined on a pair of shutouts (No. 6 North Carolina/Feb. 25, Elon/April 11) … Allowed three of nine inherited runners to score (33.3 percent) … ECU posted a 6-2 record in his eight starts … Sported a 4-2 ledger with a 3.58 ERA as starter where he surrendered 19 runs (15 earned) on 34 hits in 37.2 innings … In relief, tallied four saves to go along with a 1-0 record and a 2.76 ERA … Stuck out 19 batters while walking four and allowed just nine runs (five earned) to score in 16.1 frames … Collegiate debut on the mound occurred against Western Carolina (Feb. 16) in the season opener working two innings of relief allowing one run (unearned) on two hits while fanning five … Opened season in a relief role before moving into the weekend rotation against Memphis (April 21) … First career start came at Campbell (Feb. 21) where he tossed three scoreless frames with two punchouts and three walks in a predetermined outing collecting his first collegiate win … Also notched wins against Cincinnati, Connecticut, Tulane and UNCW … Recorded saves vs. Charlotte (two), College of Charleston and Elon … Suffered losses against Houston and South Carolina … Pitched at least a full inning of relief in nine contests with a season-high 3.1 against USF (April 14) … Worked into the fifth inning (as a starter) six times with a career-long 7.1 innings at Tulane (May 5) … Fanned multiple batters in a game 13 times (four-plus on six occasions) … Struck out career-best seven batters against the Green Wave … Allowed nine runs (eight earned) in 11 relief appearances (no runs in seven contests) … Committed three errors in 183 chances for a .984 fielding percentage … Recorded 170 putouts, 10 assists and turned 16 double plays … In league play, batted just .150 (3-for-20) with an RBI in 10 games (five starts) … Fared better on the mound posting a 3-1 record with a 3.66 ERA in seven appearances (five starts) … Allowed 17 runs (13 earned) on 29 hits in 32.0 innings … Struck out 27 while walking seven and held opposing hitters to a .248 composite batting average … Tied for ninth in The American in saves (four) … Appeared in six postseason games … Batted .315 (6-for-19) with three RBI and four runs scored … On the bump he started a pair of contests allowing five runs (all earned) on seven hits with five walks and four strikeouts in 7.2 innings … 2018 Summer: Two-time First-Team Summer Collegiate All-America selection (D1Baseball, Perfect Game) … Played for the Bethesda Big Train in the Cal Ripken League … Named Most Outstanding Player after batting .383 with 10 home runs, 12 doubles and 44 RBI … On the mound, posted a 3-1 record with a miniscule 0.34 ERA … Appeared in five games making four starts … Allowed five runs (three earned) on 13 hits in 26.1 innings … Struck out 23 and walked just four … First-Team All-Ripken League as a designated hitter … Participated in the 2018 Prospect Showcase … Led the Big Train to the Ripken League Championship Game.
 
East Lincoln High School: Two-sport athlete who earned five letters (4 baseball, 1 basketball) … Helped the Mustangs to a 50-27 three-year varsity record under coach Chris Matile … Four-time all-conference selection … Three-time North Carolina 2A All-State Team honoree (2015-17) … Named 2016 Greater Charlotte Hot Stove High School Player-of-the-Year … Two-time Denver Weekly and 2017 SD-7 Conference Player-of-the-Year … Twelve-time MaxPreps.com Player-of-the-Game selection … Struck out just eight times over the last three years … During sophomore season batted .403 with three home runs and eight doubles … Drove in 36 run and walked 11 times … Posted a 7-3 record with a 0.77 ERA … Struck out 83 batters and walked 11 in 63.0 innings … As a junior stood second on the team with a .390 batting average and led the club with 30 RBI – second-most in program history … Laced seven doubles and hit six home runs, which tied him for fifth most in a season at East Lincoln … On the mound won a school record eight games, which is tied for second in a single-season following his seven-win campaign as a sophomore … Fanned a program-best 104 batters while sporting a 0.83 ERA (third on single-season charts) … Punched out 16 batters in a 3-1 playoff win over Mountain Heritage … Closed out prep career hitting at a .430 clip with three home runs and nine doubles … Drove in 23 runs and walked 15 times … Sported a 4-0 record with a 0.45 ERA where he struck out 53 batters and walked just two in 31 frames …Played travel ball for Don Hutchins of the South Charlotte Panthers … Batted .454 with 40 RBI, 17 extra-base hits while posting a 4-1 record with a 1.33 ERA … Fanned 48 batters while walking 17 in 40 innings … Two-time Underclassman Honorable Mention All-American (2015-16) … Second-Team All-Atlantic Region by Perfect Game (2017) … Named 2017 Rawlings-Perfect Game Honorable Mention All-American … Rated at the seventh-best left-handed pitcher and 48th-best prospect in the state of North Carolina by Perfect Game … Also tabbed as the 137th-best lefty overall by Perfect Game … Named to five all-tournament teams at several Perfect Game events … Participated in several showcase events including 2014-16 WWBA World Championship (Jupiter, Fla.), 2014 WWBA 2015 Grads or 17U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.), 2014 WWBA 2016 Grads or 16U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.), 2014 WWBA 2017 Grads or 15U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.), 2015 WWBA Underclass World Championship (Fort Myers, Fla.), 2015 WWBA 2017 Grads or 16U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.), 2015 WWBA 2016 Grads or 17U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.), 2015 17U WWBA Elite Round Robin (Cartersville, Ga.) and 2016 WWBA 2017 Grads or 17U National Championship (Cartersville, Ga.).
 
Personal: Full name is Alec Michael Burleson … Born in Charlotte, N.C. … Son of Betty and Jason Burleson … Has one sibling (Bradley) … Graduated in Dec. 2020 with a BS  in business management … Seven-time ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll member (Fall 2017-Fall 2020) … Three-time American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team selection (2018-20).