We’ve reached the top two! The 2nd best reliever in the 2017 Valley League season is Charlottesville’s Joe Burris, from Christopher Newport!
Joe, a Charlottesville native, put up the following numbers for the Valley League Champion Tom Sox:
| Char | ERA | W | L | G | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | BAVG | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2017 | 0.00 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 14.3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | 0.089 | 0.420 | 1.3 | 8.8 |
Unscored upon in 13 appearances and 14 1/3 innings? Pretty impressive. Besides, out of the pitchers surveyed for this list, Joe finished tied for 1st in ERA, 1st in opponent’s batting average, 1st in WHIP, and 5th in BB/9. He threw 2 shutout innings in the Prospect Showcase, and was named 2nd team All-Valley League when the season was over.
The 5-foot-10 senior lefty has had some interesting things happen at CNU, too:
| CN | ERA | W | L | G | SV | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | WIP | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 2015 | 7.48 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 0 | 27.7 | 34 | 28 | 23 | 13 | 23 | 1.697 | 4.2 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | 3.56 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 30.3 | 41 | 18 | 12 | 6 | 33 | 1.551 | 1.8 | 9.8 |
| 2017 | 1.11 | 3 | 0 | 20 | 3 | 24.3 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 34 | 1.029 | 4.8 | 12.6 |
(By the way, Joe attended Virginia Tech in 2014, but redshirted)
Check out that junior season in 2017! His accolades from the past two seasons:
- CAC All-Academic team 2016
- VaSID College Division All-State 1st Team 2017 (at relief pitcher, of course)
- D3baseball.com All-Region 2017 (South Region, 2nd team)
- His 1.11 ERA and .143 batting average against are the 2nd best in CNU history for relievers with over 20 innings pitched
Congratulations on your excellent summer, Joe!
