Spring Sports Spotlight: Freshman Burgess begins to heat up during key stretch for Duke softball

Each week, Blue Zone analyzes the best athletes of the spring, looking at their performance that week and the season as a whole. Next up is Amir Burgess.

This season, the No. 6 Duke softball team is one of, if not the best sports team in the school. Their impressive 44-6 record has been driven in large part by returning talents Claire Davidson, Amina Vega, Cassidy Card, and Jara Wright. These four star players have won ACC Player/Pitcher of the Week a combined six times and consistently rank among the most talented players in the country.

But this week, it was freshman Amir Burgess who topped them all. In her five games, she went 8-for-13 at bat, and she also scored eight runs and scored seven more runs.

So far this season, Burgess has taken a bit of a backseat on the list of the team's most productive hitters, starting in only 29 of 50 games. Although he hasn't recorded consistent time on the diamond, he has made the most of his opportunities, batting .372.

The League City, Texas, native has shown a knack for getting on base with a 16.3% walk rate this season, but what has been missing from her game thus far has been the long ball. Things may have changed for her this week as she hit two home runs. During the rest of her season, she dropped just three balls out of bounds.

Overall, this final week of the regular season treated not only Burgess well but the entire program. In non-conference matchups against Gardner-Webb and Longwood, and the ACC series against North Carolina State, the Blue Devils won all five games, outscoring their opponents 35-8. In Sunday's victory, it was Burgess who hit the key RBI with two outs in the seventh inning. She scored Davidson from third base, making her final score 5-3.

If Duke wants to maintain its reputation as one of the nation's best teams in a potential run to the Women's College World Series, head coach Marissa Young will need to give it her all. Dew. Burgess' week was a hint at what the young left fielder's career will be like. Now, it's up to her and the rest of her team to carry the momentum from her strong regular season into what will undoubtedly be a difficult postseason.