June 6, 2002

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina pitcher Jared Burton was selected in the eighth round, the 248th pick overall, by the Oakland A's during the annual Major League Baseball draft. He is the 56th Catamount to be taken by a major league team since 1967 and the first since Charles Thomas was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in 2000.

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.

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.