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Roch Cholowsky was reasonably conflicted when he arrived in Omaha in June 2023. His life was about to dramatically change.
Since his sophomore year at Hamilton High in Chandler, Ariz., the wiry shortstop and son of former big leaguer Dan Cholowsky received deserved attention from scouts — developing power as he grew into his eventual 6-foot-2, 200-pound frame.
It was time for Cholowsky, however, to make a decision. Cholowsky slashed .466/.577/.970 with 11 home runs in his senior campaign. The Athletic’s Keith Law projected Cholowsky would be a late first-round pick. Life-changing money for a then-18-year-old was on the table should he choose to forgo his longstanding commitment to UCLA. He could have become a millionaire as a teen — for many, a dream.
And then he saw Louisiana State’s Paul Skenes, the eventual top selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, pitch at Charles Schwab Field during the College World Series. Cholowsky called that moment, just a few weeks before the draft, “a turning point.” He watched in awe as the top collegiate pitcher in the nation, an enigma on the mound, hurled seemingly unhittable 101-mph fastballs past his opponents.
“It was one of the coolest things that I’ve ever experienced in baseball,” Cholowsky said on a recent Tuesday, sitting on a bench outside Jackie Robinson Stadium’s clubhouse before a bus trip to Long Beach State’s Blair Field.
For Cholowsky, it was no longer “up in the air” whether Westwood was right for him.
Roch Cholowsky was coming to UCLA.
“I want to get to that point, in that spot and in college,” Cholowsky said. “I didn’t want to pass that up.”
In Cholowsky’s dorm, he hangs a vision board on the wall. In small lettering, he lists personal accomplishments such as becoming first team All-American (he earned second team honors last season), getting an invitation to Team USA’s collegiate camp and returning to the Cape Cod Baseball League, the nation’s premier summer-collegiate baseball competition.
But in big letters, highlighted at the bottom of the board, one word stands above the rest: “Omaha.”
For Cholowsky and No. 15 UCLA baseball, a trip to Omaha for the first time since the Bruins won the College World Series in 2013 isn’t so far out of the equation. The city and the experience as a teenage fan watching Skenes sculpted Cholowsky’s motivations.
“Omaha is what I’m really chasing,” he said.
Cholowsky may be the widely projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 MLB draft, but reaching Omaha while representing “the four letters” is what makes Cholowsky the player he is today.
He is slashing .359/.498/.729 with 18 home runs and 58 RBIs. He walks more than he strikes out (38 walks to 26 strikeouts) and takes a free base when needed, wearing 18 hit by pitches.
“It’s like he knows what’s coming,” said Phoenix Call, UCLA second baseman and Cholowsky’s roommate. “That doesn’t just happen.”
UCLA softball earned the No. 11 national seed after losing to Michigan during the Big Ten tournament title game and will host the Los Angeles Regional.
Some consider the Bruins shortstop to be the top player in college baseball. He’s a UCLA captain — the only sophomore among the three team leaders. Cholowsky has already all but led UCLA back to the postseason for the first time since 2022 — after two unremarkable, injury-impacted seasons — and a top-half finish in the program’s first year in the Big Ten.
A trip to Omaha is still a ways away — UCLA last advanced to a super regional in 2019 — but Cholowsky’s leadership and talent have the Bruins and coach John Savage dreaming of what could be in the next two months.
“I think any coach believes they’re the leader of the program — you’re the voice of the program,” said Savage, who is in his 21st season as coach. “Without player leadership, it’s really hard these days to navigate, so just having a guy like Roch, who clearly understands the team, is just such an advantage in so many ways.”
Added Savage: “He has the brightest future as any player we have ever had, and we’ve had many that became premier major leaguers for a long time.”
Savage fondly remembers Cholowsky’s high school football career. He was a three-star quarterback at Hamilton High. Cholowsky held a football scholarship offer from Notre Dame; all to say, UCLA’s signal caller in the infield was no slouch on the gridiron.
“He just has a command and a presence in himself that most people don’t have,” said Michael Zdebski, Hamilton’s football coach when Cholowsky was quarterback. “That’s something that comes from having great success in everything that you do, the fact that you don’t take it for granted, and you always want to be the best possible player at your position on the field.”
Zdebski said he could tell Cholowsky’s athleticism could lead to any athletic career he wanted just from watching him as a freshman — becoming a multi-faceted player on the football field while starring for the varsity baseball team.
Not only did Cholowsky play defensive back beyond quarterback — showcasing his hand-eye coordination, Zdebski said — but he starred as a punter too. In 2021, Cholowsky led Arizona high school athletes in yards-per-punt, striking the ball 46.6 yards on average.
Cholowsky said he always loved playing football more, but his superior talent — and lower health risks — in baseball were too hard to ignore. He knew the diamond was where he best fit.
Former UCLA player Andy Hill developed the plus-minus statistic, which is now widely cited, to measure a player’s true impact in a game.
“As I got older, I realized there’s not many Deion Sanders and Bo Jacksons out there,” Cholowsky said.
UCLA’s coach marvels about Cholowky’s leadership as a quarterback — and a shortstop. He turned to Hamilton’s 2022 and 2023 Arizona State 6-A baseball championship victories.
“He was the best player on the field,” Savage said. “He was going to have his team win a state championship. You don’t always see that — you just, you don’t always see that: ‘Oh, the best player on the field makes the team win.’”
Cholowsky is the type of player who has provided UCLA the opportunity to bounce back from bad weekends — something the Bruins have struggled with in the last two seasons, Savage said.
Savage and Cholowsky turned to their offseason bus rides to baseball fields while the status of Jackie Robinson Stadium was in limbo. U.S. District Judge David O. Carter restored UCLA’s access to the stadium in late October, allowing the Bruins to use the facilities until July. Some days in the fall, it was Birmingham High School. Other days the Bruins trekked to private schools — Notre Dame High or Harvard Westlake High School.
The travel baseball memories turned UCLA into a family, Savage said, gaining traits he felt may have been missing from the program as they departed the Pac-12.
“We were busing three, four times a week, just hanging out with everybody for an extra 30-40 minutes a day that we usually wouldn’t have,” Cholowsky said. “The big thing was that we were just together everywhere we went. And I think that that helped us bond. … Having that adversity in the fall just made us really be thankful for having Jackie Robinson as our stadium and just being able to play here every day.”
The Bruins hold a 24-6 record at Jackie Robinson Stadium (last year, they were 15-11). UCLA has won seven out of nine of its Big Ten series in 2025 — and split its season series with rival USC despite losing the formal conference three-game set. In UCLA’s late April series against Penn State — in which the Bruins swept the Nittany Lions — Cholowsky socked a home run in each game, none of which ever threatened to stay in the ballpark.
Cholowsky’s effort has turned UCLA into a contender, and very well may lead the Bruins to postseason baseball at Jackie Robinson Stadium in May. Cholowsky pointed at the visitors’ dugout and remarked about something Savage told the team.
“Coach always preaches to us that the pitching coach on the other team is feeding their families by trying to get us out,” he said.
When Cholowsky steps into the batter’s box, the visitors will face a hitter with a deeper hunger to reach Omaha.
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