Bruins' Cholowsky Awarded D1Baseball Player of the Year

Roch Cholowsky just had one of the best seasons in UCLA baseball history, and the awards are continuing to stack after winning the D1Baseball Player of the Year Award.

The award, which dates back to 2015, had never been awarded to a true underclassman until Cholowsky, who just completed his sophomore season.

This is what D1Baseball had to say about the star shortstop in their announcement of the award:

"In a banner year for college shortstops, Cholowsky beat out fellow superstar shortstops Alex Lodise (Florida State), Golden Spikes Award winner Wehiwa Aloy (Arkansas) and Aiva Arquette (Oregon State), among other candidates, for D1Baseball’s top honor. Cholowsky batted .353/.480/.710 with 23 home runs, 19 doubles and 74 RBIs to lead the Bruins to the College World Series for the first time since 2013. He also drew 45 walks and added 21 HBPs, while striking out just 30 times."

Cholowsky led UCLA to a 48-win season and a College World Series appearance, and this latest award adds to him being awarded Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, the Brooks Wallace Award, District 9 Player of the Year, Perfect Game USA Player of the Year, Baseball America Player of the Year, ABCA First Team All-American honors, Baseball America First Team All-American honors, NCBWA Second Team All-American honors, finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, all in his sophomore season.

The award's pervious winners include the likes of Paul Skenes (2023), Adley Rutschman (2019), Brady Singer (2018), and Dansby Swanson (2015).

Cholowsky is projected to be the No. 1 prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft, but still has another mission ahead of him -- making it back to Omaha along with a young Bruins team that, frankly, overperformed this season.

Much of UCLA's lineup is riddled with freshman and sophomores and, barring coach John Savage receiving an extension (which he should), this team will be primed for an even deeper run than it went on in June.

Savage wasn't shy about praising Cholowsky whenever he had the chance in Omaha despite a stretch where the shortstop didn't have an extra base hit all postseason.

"He’s as good a player we’ve had. We’ve had some monster players," Savage said. "We’ve got 30 major leaguers. So I think he’s gotten on a path of that route. He’s just a winning kid. His feel for the room, his feel for his teammates, his feel for games. His IQ, baseball IQ is extremely high.

“We had one of the best American shortstops over the last 15 years in Brandon Crawford. He was a phenomenal shortstop. [Cholowsky] reminds me of him on the defensive side. They love playing defense. They love being the quarterback. They love handling that 9-on-1 proposition. You don’t see many guys who are defensive players of the year that are also the player of the year.

“That goes back to special guys, over 20 hit-by-pitches, walks. Just playing the game. He just plays the game to win. So I think it just rubs off on other guys. It takes the selfishness off some guys and gets them unselfish. At the end of the day he’s just a winning player. He’s been very loyal to UCLA. He played third base last year. He hit over .300. Had a good freshman year.

“But at the same time, he’s a true potential major league shortstop. We’re lucky to have him, but he certainly is one of the guys. He’s a leader, but at the same time he’s a true Bruin. At the end of the day, all he cares about is winning.”