BUILT ON ROCH

Sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky's loyalty, leadership and talent resurrect UCLA's program

- by JACOB RUDNER

John Savage remembers the phone call vividly. It was June 2020. Shortstop Roch Cholowsky had just finished ninth grade at his suburban Phoenix high school. Savage had been tracking him for months—long before other programs had even started looking.

It's a moment the UCLA head coach believes changed the future of the Bruins' program.

“I committed on the spot,” Cholowsky said. “I would have just turned 15.” There wasn’t a parade of suitors. No national buzz. But Savage didn’t need consensus. He saw the makeup, the athleticism and the respect for the game. He remembers the feeling washing over him as he watched Cholowsky play: The Bruins needed the budding middle infielder.

“We just knew he had a chance to be special,” Savage said.

By the time Cholowsky stepped into the UCLA lineup as a freshman in 2024, he had already lived up to the projection, but what came next defied even the earliest expectations. He became the engine of a national power's revival, the face of a program that collapsed one season and returned to the College World Series the next.

And this June, he became something else entirely.

Cholowsky is the Baseball America College Player of the Year and joins an exclusive group. He is just the sixth POY to be honored prior to his draft year in the 44-year history of the award. His name now sits beside Robin Ventura, John Olerud, Mike Kelly, Mark Teixeira and Anthony Rendon.

“It was a little surprising,” Cholowsky said. “Just seeing what those other Players of the Year have done, who it’s gone out to. So I was a little surprised, but it means a lot to me. I’m super excited about it.”

His coach wasn’t shocked—but he was struck by the weight of the moment.

“For him to get this award,” Savage said, “it’s a big, big deal.”

Rare as it might be for an underclassman to win Baseball America’s highest individual honor for a collegiate player, Cholowsky was more than deserving.