UCLA’s Cholowsky Named Best Shortstop in Nation

The UCLA Bruins are back in the College World Series for the first time since 2013 and they were led all season by sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky who was named the winner of the Brooks Wallace Award Friday by the College Baseball Foundation.

The Brooks Wallace award recognizes the nation’s best college baseball shortstop, and is named after former Texas Tech shortstop Brooks Wallace.

Wallace played with the Red Raiders from 1977-80 and died of leukimia at the age of 27. Recipients of the award are selected for a multitude of factors and not just how they performed on both sides of the ball. The award considers a player’s prowess as a leader, in academia and in their community.

Notable past recipients of the award include Grae Kessinger, an Ole Miss shortstop who received the award in 2019, and last year’s winner, Griff O’Ferrall, who won the award with the University of Virginia.

“What an incredible year it has been for shortstops in college baseball,” Brooks Wallace Award Chair Larry Wallace said. “We are incredibly proud to have Roch as our winner of Brooks’ award. Roch was instrumental in turning around a team that had a losing record last year and led them to Omaha this year. Roch defines what we look for to represent the award through his leadership off the field without overlooking the defensive prowess and power numbers he put up as well. Welcome to the Wallace family Roch!”

Along with winning the Brooks Wallace Award, Cholowsky was named the Big Ten Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, District 9 Player of the Year, Perfect Game Player of the Year, Second Team All-American Honors by the NCBWA, ABCA First Team Honors, a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy and a semi finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.

Quite the season.

UCLA Athletics wrote in a statement announcing the award, “Heading into the College World Series, he is hitting .367 with 23 home runs and 73 RBI. He leads the Big Ten in OPS (1.235), slugging percentage (.742), total bases (178), and runs scored (79), while ranking third in on-base percentage (.494). His 23 home runs mark the most by a Bruin since 2000.”

Cholowsky and the Bruins take on the Murray State Racers in the first round of the College World Series in Omaha Saturday at 11 a.m. PT.

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