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Minot High’s Burke has sights set on Mesa CC

Ryan Ladika/MDN Chase Burke takes an at-bat during Minot High's Class A State Tournament contest against Red River in Mandan June 4.

On the heels of an impressive senior baseball season at Minot High School, pitcher and center fielder Chase Burke will be taking his talents to the Valley of the Sun this fall to continue his playing career.

The reigning North Dakota Class A Baseball Senior Athlete of the Year, as announced by the North Dakota High School Coaches Association, has plans to join the Mesa Community College Thunderbirds in Mesa, Arizona, following the conclusion of the Minot Vistas’ summer season in late July.

Burke will join the Thunderbirds after an outstanding season in which he helped lead the Magi back to the state tournament in Mandan, North Dakota for the fourth consecutive year, not counting the 2020 season wiped out due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He hit for a robust .351 average in 31 games for the Magi this season, accompanied by an on-base percentage of .519 and team-leading totals in extra-base hits (20), as well as stolen bases (32), to help lead him to his prestigious honor.

“It’s a big accomplishment,” Burke said of the award. “It came from a lot of hard work with my family, coaches and friends, and from all the offseason hours. I worked hard and have fun, play baseball hard and never take reps off.”

He also made a handful of appearances on the mound this year, posting a 1.45 earned run average in 9.2 innings of work with 18 strikeouts, as well as three saves.

Burke has had his eye on Mesa Community College for quite a while, and made official his post-high school plans when he signed his National Letter of Intent Nov. 20. The team’s extensive history of consistently producing successful baseball teams, as well as the prospect of studying engineering, was what first piqued his interest in the school.

“They have a great engineering program and the team is really big on winning,” Burke explained. “They’ve been known for their success, and the coaches were awesome. It seemed like the right fit when I went down there.”

The Thunderbirds, aided by a program that has seen 23 alumni reach the Major Leagues, have won four national championships in their history, the last of which came in 2014 under current head coach and then-Division II Conference Coach of the Year Tony Cirelli.

More recently, the team finished its 2021 season with a loss in the National Junior College Athletic Association Region I semifinals. In doing so, it extending its streak of seasons to end in a postseason berth to seven in a row, excluding the canceled 2020 season.

The most notable Major Leaguer produced by the Thunderbirds was former Cincinnati Reds outfielder and first baseman Dave Collins. The former 23rd-round pick in 1971 spent seven of his 16 years in the big leagues with the Reds.

Burke knew the school was right for him when he and his family visited the campus last fall, and was grateful when they were supportive of his decision to commit.

He hopes to be an immediate factor for his new team in a starting role, and would like to continue playing center field as he has with the Magi. He also ensured to give his coaching staff credit for helping him reach this point in his career, and spoke fondly of his time at Minot High School.

“It meant a lot. We had really good coaches, Stenberg, Shirek, Lach, Pat, Fricke when I was younger, and my dad, Nathan Burke,” he said. “They all provided good leadership roles and coached well and they all wanted the best for us.”

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