With the world shutdown because of COVID-19, Robbie Burnett set up his phone on a tripod in his backyard. Burnett’s junior season of high school baseball was canceled after four games, preventing him from making a name for himself in front of college coaches.

So, he decided to bring himself to scouts. In his backyard, Burnett recorded himself taking swings off a pitching machine and fielding ground balls. Additionally, he traveled to a local football field with a friend who recorded him running the 60-yard dash.

After he put all of the clips together, Burnett sent his recruiting videos to college coaches — mostly around his native North Carolina and mid-major schools, he said. Despite reaching out to numerous schools, Burnett said UNC Asheville was the only program that offered him a scholarship. Heading into his senior year, it was Burnett’s only offer so he took it.

“I was really a nobody in high school,” Burnett said. “And I'm from a small town. Nobody from my high school went to college to play baseball before me.”

Nearly four hours away from his hometown of Franklinton, N.C., Burnett just completed his junior season at UNC Asheville. Throughout his tenure with the Bulldogs, Burnett hit .338/.450/.623 (147 wRC+) while earning All-Big South First Team honors in 2024 and 2023 and a spot on the 2022 All-Big South Freshman Team. Burnett will play in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Harwich Mariners this summer as he prepares for the MLB Draft in July. While Burnett has his eyes set on the draft, he also entered his name into the transfer portal on May 21.

“If he doesn't get drafted this summer, what's the point of coming back and doing it again a third year in a row in the Big South? He's got to go prove to these scouts that he can do it at a higher level,” UNC Asheville head coach Scott Friedholm said of Burnett.

Though Burnett quickly emerged as one of the best players in the Big South, he struggled his first semester. The adjustment to Division I from his less-than-3,000-person hometown proved to be difficult. He wasn’t a starter when the season began in February.

Burnett received limited playing time to start the season but was thrust into a starting role by the third weekend. Friedholm was looking for a spark. Burnett gave him that and more.

“By weekend three, I was a full-time starter and then from that point on, it was just like, ‘I'm a freshman, but I'm going to compete, I'm going to show you that I'm better than you.’ That's what was going through my mind,” Burnett said.

From there, Burnett became the Bulldogs’ top offensive player. He finished the season hitting .322/.416/.481 with a team-high 120 wRC+.

“He got his opportunity and man did he not miss it,” Friedholm said.

Burnett rigorously improved his strength and swing to build off his stellar freshman season. Despite standing 5-foot-10, Friedholm said that UNC Asheville head strength and conditioning coach Brian Robbett called Burnett the strongest athlete on campus. Additionally, Friedholm said Burnett never takes a day off from fine-tuning his swing in the cages.

This culminated in Burnett drastically improving his contact and power, hitting .379/.486/.759 through 38 games in 2023. Though against Wofford in late April, he suffered a season-ending thumb injury stealing second base.

The injury was a major blow to Burnett and UNC Asheville. Without their star, the Bulldogs won five of their last 12 games while Burnett was robbed of continuing to show he was one of the best breakout players in the NCAA. Had he finished the season with enough at bats to qualify, his 179 wRC+ would’ve been tied for the 15th-best in D-I.

Burnett was supposed to play in the Cape League for Harwich following the collegiate season, furthering his opportunity to make a name for himself among scouts. His injury derailed that chance, not allowing him to return to the league after a brief four-game stint with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in 2022.

Returning from injury was nothing new to Burnett, especially at this stage in his career. Before his sophomore high school baseball season, he tore his ACL. In a pivotal year to get recruited by college coaches, Burnett was forced to wait until his junior year — which COVID-19 derailed. By missing the 2023 Cape League season, Burnett felt it was reminiscent of his high school career when he missed a premiere time to play in front of scouts.

Despite his high school challenges, Burnett never let obstacles prevent playing at the next level. Charles Whitaker, the former head coach at Franklinton High School, said Burnett's will to play college baseball pushed his work ethic to an unprecedented level.

“His hard work is going to take him far,” Whitaker said. “He's not a big guy that you see all these other guys, 6-foot-3, 6-foot-4. He's a smart athlete, but he's super strong.”

Heading into his junior season at UNC Asheville, Burnett said he was motivated not to miss a beat from 2023 despite the injury. He didn’t.

Across 50 games in 2024, Burnett showed he was one of the best five-tool players in D-I. At the plate, he hit .323/.454/.656 (151 wRC+) while setting career highs with 18 home runs and 15 stolen bases. In center field — a position he adjusted to full-time after playing second base as a freshman — Friedholm said his arm strength drastically improved while tracking down balls has always been one of his strengths.

Anchored by another elite season, Burnett and UNC Asheville’s coaching staff agreed that he should enter the transfer portal — something Burnett offered to bypass a year ago. Still, Burnett says getting drafted out of UNC Asheville has always been his goal and that he views the transfer portal as a backup plan if that doesn't go his way.

“In my opinion, he was the best player in the Big South for two years in a row,” Friedholm said of Burnett.

With the MLB Draft just over a month away, Burnett looks to improve his draft stock playing in the Cape League. A year ago, Friedholm said that Mariners manager Steve Englert — who he knows extensively from coaching together at Boston College — took a chance by adding Burnett to the team’s roster before he broke out.

When Friedholm called Englert about Burnett joining Harwich this year, he said Englert didn’t hesitate and said absolutely. Over the last two seasons, Burnett has quietly been one of the best players in college baseball. Playing in the Cape League, he can go from an unknown mid-major player to a highly touted prospect.

“In high school, when I learned about the Cape, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to play there and ball out.’ That's the goal. So hopefully I do that this summer,” Burnett said.

(Photos courtesy of UNC Asheville Athletics)