Burris no overnight baseball success story

• By ROBIN FAMBROUGH
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 15, 2009 - Page: 1C
• This is the third in a series of summer features on high school athletes in the area.

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By the time Josh Burris entered middle school, he was used to the questions he got from prospective coaches.

“Why don’t you play basketball? Do you want to play basketball?” Burris recalled. “I got that a lot. I guess that’s what people expected. I played for a while, but I didn’t like it.

“I played football through the eighth grade. After a broken ankle and a broken finger, that was enough for me. Baseball … that’s pretty much always been the game for me.”

The 17-year-old Burris is not a household name in local baseball circles even though he nearly led Scotlandville High to the Class 5A playoffs as a junior with a 6-2 record on the mound and a .385 batting average.

At 5-foot-11, 170 pounds, he isn’t as physically imposing as many pitchers. But Burris can count former major league pitcher Dwight Gooden as a distant relative on his mother’s side.

He has a fastball that has been clocked as high as 93 miles per hour, a vicious curveball and a scholarship offer from national champion LSU. The LSU offer was one Burris accepted last weekend while playing for the locally-based Marucci Baseball 17-year-old squad at a tournament in Marietta, Ga.

Don’t label Burris as an overnight success.

“Ever since Josh was 4 years old, he’s loved baseball,” Burris’ mother, Laura Gooden, said. “You could just see it on his face even then. He was so serious about baseball even then.

“He used to take his bat and glove to bed with him. He likes baseball and he works at it.”

Less than 24 hours after returning from Marietta, Burris was working out. He spent nearly three hours Tuesday honing his pitching and hitting skills. When he doesn’t pitch, Burris plays anywhere from catcher and third base to left field.

“I’m working on my pitch placement,” Burris said. “I need to be more consistent. When I hit, I need to not drop my shoulder so much. There’s always something you can work on.”

Talent is one thing and work ethic is certainly another. But ask coaches who have worked with Burris for their opinions, and you’ll get accolades.

“Josh is a great player,” Marucci coach Chad Raley said. “As a pitcher, he’s made to be in that closer’s role. And he does it very well. In the tournament in Georgia, we scored the go-ahead run in the top of the inning. Josh told us that was all he needed.