No. 7 Draft prospect K's career-high 16, breaks Wake Forest's single-season record
Allison Mast
@allisonmast13After recording his career-high 16th strikeout Friday night, Wake Forest’s Chase Burns could barely contain his excitement. He bounded off the mound, fists flying every which way as the Clemson Tigers retreated to their dugout.
"It just happens," Burns said. "It’s something we like to call 'flow,' that blackout state where you don’t really know what’s happening, you just go through the motions."
But reaction notwithstanding, the more historically significant strikeout came five innings earlier with less fanfare when Burns broke the school’s single-season strikeout record.
In the second, 2024's No. 7 Draft prospect tallied his fourth strikeout of the game and his 144th of the season, officially surpassing Rhett Lowder’s record set last season. While his time atop the Demon Deacons' charts was short-lived, Lowder’s college dominance has translated into a promising start to his professional career. He was selected seventh overall by the Reds and currently ranks as their No. 2 prospect and No. 30 overall. Burns figures to challenge Lowder and right-handed pitcher Kyle Sleeth (third overall, 2003) for the highest-selected players in program history come this July.
The 16-strikeout performance did have some significance in its own right. It was the most in a single game by a Demon Deacon pitcher since 1985 when Erik Hanson -- 2024 Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame inductee -- struck out 18.
"I don’t really know what to say," Burns said of his performance. "It was a good outing. I stuck to what the plan was for it, and fortunately, I was able to go out there and get those punches."
While his dominance in black and gold is relatively recent, Burns has long been a compelling prospect. He was drafted in the 20th round of the 2021 Draft by the Padres before opting to go the college route and pitch for Tennessee. He eclipsed 100 strikeouts in both of his seasons in Knoxville (103 in '22, 114 in '23) and made College World Series history in 2023 when he became the first reliever to throw six or more scoreless innings in a game since 1997.
As his first and likely only season at Wake Forest begins to wind down, he sits at 156 strikeouts in 82 innings pitched -- good for a D1-leading 17.1 K/9. If he can maintain the lead, he will be the first ACC pitcher to earn the distinction since Carlos Rodón racked up 184 strikeouts for North Carolina State in 2013.