Editor’s note: The following article was published first on d1baseball.com. Right now, you can get 30% off any subscription at D1 with code: D126.
Reigning D1Baseball Player of the Year Roch Cholowsky leads the 2026 D1Baseball Preseason All-America teams. Cholowsky, a junior shortstop, is one of three Preseason All-Americans for No. 1 ranked UCLA, which placed three-quarters of its infield on the teams. Corner infielders Mulivai Levu and Roman Martin earned third-team honors.
Five other teams tied UCLA with three Preseason All-Americans: Coastal Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville, North Carolina and Texas. The Chanticleers, coming off a run to the College World Series Finals last spring, are the only team with two players on the first team: ace Cameron Flukey and reliever Dominick Carbone. Fellow CCU bullpen star Ryan Lynch made the second team.
⚾️ MORE BASEBALL ⚾️
Programs with two All-Americans include LSU, Miami, Oregon State, TCU, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Wake Forest. All 13 teams with multiple Preseason All-Americans enter the spring ranked in the D1Baseball Top 25.
The ACC leads all conferences with five players on the first team, edging the SEC (four). But the SEC leads the way with 18 Preseason All-Americans in total across the three teams, edging the ACC (17). Other conferences with multiple All-Americans include the Big 12 (four), Big Ten and Sun Belt (three apiece). Independent Oregon State has two Preseason All-Americans. The ASUN, CAA, American, Ivy League and Big West have one apiece.
Cholowsky, the 2025 D1Baseball Player of the Year, is one of four players who earned first-team All-America honors after the 2025 season and returned to earn first-team Preseason All-America honors in 2026. He is joined by Miami third baseman Daniel Cuvet, Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress and Florida Gulf Coast two-way star Evan Dempsey. Arizona closer Tony Pluta moves up from the second team at the end of last spring to the first team heading into 2026. Kansas slugger Brady Ballinger, Oregon State ace Dax Whitney and Coastal’s Flukey all jump from the third team last June to the first team in the 2026 preseason.
Other returning All-Americans include Louisville’s Lucas Moore and Mississippi State’s Ace Reese, both of whom captured second-team honors in the 2025 postseason as well as in the 2026 preseason. Texas lefty Dylan Volantis earned first-team honors as a reliever last spring but lands on the second team this preseason as a starter, a new role for him. LSU’s Casan Evans is also making the transition from a reliever (where he earned third-team honors last spring) to a starter (where he joins Volantis on the second team). And Yale’s Jack Ohman returns to the third team.
D1Baseball’s editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2026 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons (particularly since the level of competition varies significantly from one conference to another). The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2026 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.
First Team
Position
Name
School
Class
AVG/OBP/SLG
OPS
PA
2B
HR
RBI
BB-K
SB
C
Ryder Helfrick
Arkansas
JR
.305/.420/.616
1.036
236
10
15
38
32-53
3
1B
Myles Bailey
Florida State
SO
.327/.441/.663
1.104
245
11
19
56
32-76
4
2B
Christopher Rembert
Auburn
SO
.344/.467/.555
1.022
260
14
10
46
37-36
6
3B
Daniel Cuvet
Miami
JR
.372/.450/.708
1.158
269
20
18
84
30-51
6
SS
Roch Cholowsky
UCLA
JR
.353/.480/.710
1.190
324
19
23
74
45-30
7
OF
Drew Burress
Georgia Tech
JR
.333/.469/.693
1.162
290
23
19
62
53-42
9
OF
Derek Curiel
LSU
SO
.345/.470/.519
.990
323
20
7
55
53-56
3
OF
AJ Gracia
Virginia
JR
.293/.449/.558
1.007
285
10
15
54
57-36
8
DH
Brady Ballinger
Kansas
JR
.353/.495/.670
1.164
289
21
16
56
56-44
0
UTIL
Evan Dempsey
FGCU
JR
.309/.393/.435
.828
267
18
3
29
16-23
13
Position
Name
School
Class
Throws
W-L
ERA
SV
APP
GS
IP
K-BB
SP
Cameron Flukey
Coastal Carolina
JR
RHP
7-2
3.28
0
18
17
101.2
117-24
SP
Hunter Elliott
Ole Miss
RS JR
LHP
10-3
2.94
0
17
16
85.2
102-40
SP
Aidan Knaak
Clemson
JR
RHP
9-1
4.18
0
16
16
90.1
110-29
SP
Ethan Norby
East Carolina
JR
LHP
8-5
3.80
0
18
14
90
119-22
SP
Dax Whitney
Oregon State
SO
RHP
6-3
3.40
0
17
17
76.2
120-37
RP
Dominick Carbone
Coastal Carolina
JR
LHP
6-0
2.36
5
28
0
42
52-9
RP
Tony Pluta
Arizona
SR
RHP
3-0
1.46
14
30
0
37
34-7
UT
Evan Dempsey
FGCU
JR
RHP
5-1
1.97
0
15
10
68.2
75-20
Second Team
Position
Name
School
Class
AVG/OBP/SLG
OPS
PA
2B
HR
RBI
BB-K
SB
C
Vahn Lackey
Georgia Tech
JR
.347/.421/.500
.921
266
14
6
42
25-38
18
1B
Kade Lewis
Wake Forest
JR
.376/.482/.602
1.084
282
18
11
59
45-45
4
2B
Jarren Advincula
Georgia Tech
JR
.342/.410/.506
.916
267
17
6
33
22-29
13
3B
Ace Reese
Mississippi State
JR
.352/.422/.718
1.140
263
18
21
66
26-52
1
SS
Justin Lebron
Alabama
JR
.316/.421/.636
1.058
281
18
18
72
35-68
17
OF
Harrison Feinberg
Northeastern
RS SR
.367/.455/.715
1.170
257
14
18
67
35-42
37
OF
Lucas Moore
Louisville
JR
.341/.430/.456
.886
319
10
5
49
34-29
53
OF
Sawyer Strosnider
TCU
SO
.350/.420/.650
1.070
251
13
11
51
20-47
10
DH
Chris Hacopian
Texas A&M
JR
.375/.502/.656
1.158
249
12
14
61
40-19
1
UTIL
Kenny Ishikawa
Georgia
SO
.318/.420/.562
.982
238
23
8
32
30-28
0
Position
Name
School
Class
Throws
W-L
ERA
SV
APP
GS
IP
K-BB
SP
Jason DeCaro
North Carolina
JR
RHP
9-3
3.78
0
16
16
83.1
70-26
SP
Casan Evans
LSU
SO
RHP
5-1
2.05
7
19
3
52.2
71-19
SP
Aidan King
Florida
SO
RHP
7-2
2.58
0
17
12
73.1
79-23
SP
Tommy LaPour
TCU
JR
RHP
8-3
3.09
0
16
16
90.1
88-27
SP
Dylan Volantis
Texas
SO
LHP
4-1
1.94
12
23
1
51
74-12
RP
Ryan Lynch
Coastal Carolina
SR
RHP
2-1
0.56
9
28
0
32
36-10
RP
Walker McDuffie
North Carolina
SO
RHP
3-3
3.74
7
28
1
55.1
72-25
UT
Kenny Ishikawa
Georgia
SO
LHP
5-6
4.21
1
19
9
66.1
73-22
Third Team
Position
Name
School
Class
AVG/OBP/SLG
OPS
PA
2B
HR
RBI
BB-K
SB
C
Carson Tinney
Texas
JR
.348/.498/.753
1.251
205
13
17
53
34-40
1
1B
Mulivai Levu
UCLA
JR
.320/.389/.522
.911
314
15
12
85
24-48
4
2B
Gavin Gallaher
North Carolina
JR
.326/.409/.606
1.015
281
13
17
68
33-45
5
3B
Roman Martin
UCLA
JR
.316/.450/.502
.952
300
15
9
61
39-53
6
SS
Tyler Bell
Kentucky
SO
.296/.385/.522
.907
265
17
10
46
24-59
11
OF
Aiden Robbins
Texas
JR
.422/.537/.652
1.189
255
19
6
38
44-32
20
OF
Caden Sorrell
Texas A&M
JR
.337/.430/.789
1.219
114
5
12
32
16-25
0
OF
Zion Rose
Louisville
JR
.310/.396/.552
.948
304
16
13
67
31-36
31
DH
Henry Ford
Tennessee
JR
.362/.420/.575
.995
231
9
11
46
21-30
4
UTIL
Tague Davis
Louisville
SO
.283/.390/.571
.961
264
9
18
52
35-61
2
Position
Name
School
Class
Throws
W-L
ERA
SV
APP
GS
IP
K-BB
SP
Connor Fennell
Vanderbilt
JR
RHP
6-0
2.53
2
17
7
53.1
84-11
SP
Ethan Kleinschmit
Oregon State
JR
LHP
8-5
3.56
0
17
17
91
113-36
SP
Blake Morningstar
Wake Forest
JR
RHP
6-2
3.87
0
16
14
79
93-32
SP
Jack Ohman
Yale
SO
RHP
8-1
1.10
0
12
11
73.2
87-20
SP
Ricky Ojeda
UC Irvine
JR
RHP
13-1
3.55
2
29
2
66
83-29
RP
Ryan Bilka
Miami
SR
RHP
6-2
2.18
3
18
0
62
57-13
RP
Brady Frederick
Tennessee
JR
RHP
8-2
2.67
4
24
0
77.2
76-19
UT
Tague Davis
Louisville
SO
LHP
0-0
12.00
0
5
0
3
2-7