ROSEMONT, Ill. \u2013 The Big Ten Conference announced its 2026 baseball awards winners on Tuesday. Voting was conducted by the conference head coaches.<\/p>\n
UCLA junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky was named Big Ten Player of the Year for the second-straight season and record-setting USC junior Mason Edwards earned Big Ten Pitcher of the Year honors. Nebraska took home two individual awards with senior shortstop Dylan Carey tabbed Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and rookie outfielder Drew Grego chosen as Big Ten Freshman of the Year. UCLA\u2019s John Savage was a unanimous selection as Big Ten Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
Cholowsky becomes the third player in Big Ten history to earn the player of the year award in consecutive seasons, joining Minnesota\u2019s Luke Appert (2002-03) and Michigan\u2019s Barry Larkin (1984-85). His selection also marks the fourth-straight year a shortstop has been recognized. Cholowsky has produced a .330 batting average with 21 home runs and 59 RBI in 54 games. He leads the Big Ten in home runs (21), runs scored (70) and is tied for total bases (141). A native of Chandler, Arizona, Cholowsky is the top-ranked player on the 2026 MLB Draft top 150 prospects list and is a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, presented to the top amateur baseball player in the nation.<\/p>\n
Left-handed starter Edwards sports an 8-0 record with a 1.49 ERA in 84.1 innings pitched. The Los Angeles native leads the NCAA in strikeouts (154) and hits allowed per nine innings (4.59) while ranking second in ERA (1.49) and seventh in WHIP (0.95). Edwards has recorded 10-or-more strikeouts 12 times and set the Big Ten record for strikeouts in a conference season (113). The Golden Spikes Award semifinalist was also named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week four times, matching a conference season record.<\/p>\n
Carey owns a .980 fielding percentage in 54 starts, having committed just four errors in 196 chances at shortstop. At the plate he has compiled a .347 batting average, 14 home runs and a Big Ten-leading 63 RBI. A native of Castle Rock, Colorado, Carey has made 230 career starts for the Cornhuskers and is the school\u2019s all-time doubles leader (63). He is a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, awarded to the top college player by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.<\/p>\n
Grego sports a .348 batting average with seven home runs and 44 RBI in 48 games. He ranks second in slugging percentage (.576) and third in on-base percentage (.444) and batting (.348) for the 15th-ranked Cornhuskers. Grego has also been flawless in the outfield, fielding 1.000 in 93 chances. The Papillion, Nebraska, product is the third Cornhusker to win the Big Ten Freshman of the Year Award.<\/p>\n
Savage led UCLA to its second-straight Big Ten regular season title as the Bruins set Big Ten records for conference wins (28) and consecutive conference wins (25) in a season. UCLA (48-6) has spent the entire season as the nation\u2019s consensus No. 1-ranked team and is the top-seed for the Big Ten Baseball Tournament presented by IFS.ai, which began Tuesday and runs through Sunday at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb.<\/p>\n
The Big Ten also recognized 17 Sportsmanship Award recipients, honoring student-athletes who distinguished themselves through sportsmanship, ethical behavior, academics and citizenship.<\/p>\n
A complete list of award winners is below:<\/p>\n
2026 BIG TEN BASEBALL POSTSEASON AWARDS<\/p>\n
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Roch Cholowsky, Jr., SS, UCLA<\/p>\n
PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Mason Edwards, Jr., SP, USC<\/p>\n
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Dylan Carey, Sr., SS, Nebraska<\/p>\n
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Drew Grego, Fr., OF, Nebraska<\/p>\n
COACH OF THE YEAR
John Savage, UCLA +<\/p>\n
ALL-BIG TEN FIRST TEAM
SP \u2013 Carson Jasa, R-So., Nebraska
SP \u2013 Logan Reddemann, Jr., UCLA
SP \u2013 Mason Edwards, Jr., USC +
SP \u2013 Grant Govel, So., USC
RP \u2013 Tanner Bradley, So., Oregon
RP \u2013 Easton Hawk, So., UCLA
RP \u2013 Wylan Moss, So., UCLA
C \u2013 Weber Neels, Sr., Minnesota
1B \u2013 Mulivai Levu, Jr., UCLA
2B \u2013 Colby Turner, Jr., Michigan
SS \u2013 Roch Cholowsky, Jr., UCLA
3B \u2013 Drew Smith, Sr., Oregon
OF \u2013 Hogan Denny, So., Indiana
OF \u2013 Will Gasparino, Jr., UCLA
OF \u2013 Jackson Hotchkiss, So., Washington
UTL \u2013 Michael Anderson, Sr., Penn State
At-Large \u2013 Dylan Carey, Sr., Nebraska (SS)
At-Large \u2013 Roman Martin, Jr., UCLA (3B)<\/p>\n
ALL-BIG TEN SECOND TEAM
SP \u2013\u00a0Aidan Flinn, Fr., Illinois
SP \u2013 Aidan Donovan, So., Michigan State
SP \u2013 Isaac Morton, Jr., Minnesota
SP \u2013 Will Sanford, So., Oregon
RP \u2013 J\u2019Shawn Unger, So., Nebraska
RP \u2013 Devin Bell, Sr., Oregon
RP \u2013 Adam Troy, R-Jr., USC
C \u2013 Colton Bower, R-Jr., Washington
1B \u2013 Case Sanderson, Jr., Nebraska
2B \u2013 Gable Mitchell, Sr., Iowa
SS \u2013 Henry Kaczmar, Sr., Ohio State
3B \u2013 Sam Flores, Sr., Purdue
OF \u2013 Drew Grego, Fr., Nebraska
OF \u2013 Mac Moyer, Jr., Nebraska
OF \u2013 Jack Basseer, Sr., USC
UTL \u2013 Dane Harvey, R-So., Ohio State
At-Large \u2013 Jake Hanley, So., Indiana (1B)
At-Large \u2013 Ryan Cooney, Jr., Oregon (2B)
At-Large \u2013 Cashel Dugger, Jr., UCLA (C)<\/p>\n
ALL-BIG TEN THIRD TEAM
SP \u2013 Tony Neubeck, Gr., Indiana
SP \u2013 Kurt Barr, Sr., Michigan
SP \u2013 Noah Kenney, Jr., Washington
RP \u2013 Cal Randall, Jr., UCLA
C \u2013 Mason Eckelman, Jr., Ohio State
1B \u2013 Caleb Wulf, Sr., Iowa
2B \u2013 Dylan Drake, Jr., Purdue
SS \u2013 Ryan Kucherak, Jr., Northwestern
3B \u2013 Brayden Martin, Jr., Maryland
OF \u2013 Charlie Sutherland, Jr., Minnesota
OF \u2013 Jack Lausch, Sr., Northwestern
OF \u2013 Avery Moore, Sr., Purdue
UTL \u2013 Naulivou Lauaki Jr., R-Fr., Oregon
(no At-Large due to second team tie)<\/p>\n
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
P \u2013 Grant Govel, So., USC
C \u2013 Cashel Dugger, Jr., UCLA
1B \u2013 Mulivai Levu, Jr., UCLA
2B \u2013 Gable Mitchell, Sr., Iowa
SS \u2013 Dylan Carey, Sr., Nebraska
3B \u2013 Drew Smith, Sr., Oregon
OF \u2013 Mac Moyer, Jr., Nebraska
OF \u2013 Will Gasparino, Jr., UCLA
OF \u2013 Dean West, Jr., UCLA<\/p>\n
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Aidan Flinn, Fr., SP, Illinois
AJ Putty, Fr., 1B, Illinois
Kyle Alivo, R-Fr., UTL, Iowa
Bud Coombs, Fr., OF, Maryland
Ryan Costello, R-Fr., 1B, Maryland
Ty Kaunas, Fr., SS, Maryland
Shane Brinham, Fr., SP, Michigan
Drew Grego, Fr., OF, Nebraska
Jeter Worthley, Fr., C, Nebraska
Brayden Jaksa, Fr., 1B, Oregon
Naulivou Lauaki Jr., R-Fr., UTL, Oregon
Angel Laya, Fr., OF, Oregon
Zach Strickland, Fr., RP, UCLA
Diego Velazquez, Fr., RP, USC<\/p>\n
SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD
Will Johannes, Sr., C, Illinois
Tony Neubeck, Gr., SP, Indiana
Kellen Strohmeyer, R-Jr., OF, Iowa
Aden Hill, Sr., OF, Maryland
Joonsung Park, Jr., UTL, Michigan
Randy Seymour, Sr., 1B, Michigan State
Charlie Sutherland, Jr., OF, Minnesota
Caleb Clark, Sr., RP, Nebraska
Jack Lausch, Sr., OF, Northwestern
Noah Furcht, Gr., OF, Ohio State
Jack Brooks, Jr., OF, Oregon
Ben DeMell, R-Sr., RP, Penn State
Aaron Manias, R-Sr., UTL, Purdue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Matt Chatelle, Sr., C, Rutgers
Cashel Dugger, Jr., C, UCLA\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Andrew Lamb, Jr., OF, USC\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
Tommy Brandenburg, R-Sr., RP, Washington\u00a0<\/p>\n
+ unanimous selections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROSEMONT, Ill. \u2013 The Big Ten Conference announced its 2026 baseball awards winners on Tuesday. Voting was conducted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,6201,6204,6203,6205,2328,2304,4,2305,2303,6209,6207,317,6202,6206,6208],"class_list":["post-703361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-big-ten","tag-college-basketball-scores","tag-college-football-scores","tag-college-volleyball-scores","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason","tag-player-statistics","tag-sports-information","tag-sports-news","tag-sports-scores","tag-sports-videos","tag-team-statistics"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116602928092909240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}