DALLAS (NCBWA) – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and Dick Howser Trophy presented by The Game Headwear have selected the four finalists for the 38th Dick Howser Trophy to be presented at a national news conference at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, June 13, at 10 a.m. (CDT) to the college baseball player of the year.
The four finalists are Arkansas junior shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, UCLA sophomore shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Tennessee junior starting pitcher Liam Doyle, and Florida State junior shortstop Alex Lodise.
All four NCAA Division I standouts are well on their way to consensus All-America honors and already have earned all-conference laurels (including four Players or Pitchers of the Year for their respective conferences) and are expected to be highlighted on next week’s NCBWA All-America squads.
Aloy, the 2025 SEC Player of the Year from Wailuku, Hawai'I, joins 2015 Dick Howser Trophy recipient and MLB star Andrew Benintendi as the only two Razorbacks to be chosen as SEC Players of the Year.
Aloy has been a Razorbacks starter for all 119 games since transferring to UA In 2024 as a sophomore shortstop. The 2024 SEC All-Academic choice's name in his native tongue Is "The Prized One," and he has been a true reward for coach Dave Van Horn's teams the last two seasons.
The older brother of Razorbacks outfielder Kuhio Aloy and son of former Hawai'i Rainbows standout Jamie Aloy leads Arkansas in virtually every offensive category with a .355 batting average, .686 slugging percentage and .440 on-base percentage. The 2025 NCAA Fayetteville Regional All-Tournament Team member paced UA to a sweep and a date with defending NCAA champion Tennessee in the Fayetteville Super Regional this weekend.
His 20 home runs represent a tie for fourth-most clobbered in an individual season at Arkansas, and he tops the SEC in runs scored with 77 and hits with 87. He also sports a team-leading on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.126 and has committed just five errors in 205 fielding chances at short for a .976 fielding percentage
The slugging Cholowsky of Chandler, Arizona, was chosen as Big Ten Conference Player of the Year and the league’s Defensive Player of the Year (a first in UCLA history) in the Bruins first season in the conference. He also was UCLA's first conference Player of the Year since the 1998 season in the Pac-12 Conference.
The first team All-Big Ten choice selection helped the Bruins go on a late-season tear with a pre-NCAA Los Angeles Super Regional Record of 45-16 - the most victories by a Bruins team since the 2019 Super Regional squad went 52-11. He also topped NCAA Division I hitters during the regular season with a 5.85 wins-above-replacement tally.
Cholowsky paced coach John Savage's crew with a .370 batting average, 23 home runs and 71 RBI. He also topped the Big Ten with an OPS of 1.261 and slugging percentage at .761 and was third with an on-base percentage of .500), total bases with 175, and runs scored with 78. His 23 home runs were the most produced by a Bruin since Cody Decker with 21 in 2009.
He also excelled defensively while leading the Bruins to the Big Ten championship contest against Nebraska and a three-game sweep in the NCAA Los Angeles Regional prior to the LA Super Regional this week against upstart UTSA. Cholowsky had a defensive-runs-saved mark of 16.44 and a defensive WAR of 1.23 to rank second In NCAA Division I In both statistics. He made just seven errors in 289 total chances this year for a .976 fielding percentage.
Tennessee's ace starter and lefty Doyle was the 2025 SEC Pitcher of the Year and first team All-SEC starter as a semifinalist for the Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award.
The standout from Derry, New Jersey, is tops nationally with 158 strikeouts in 92 innings of work for coach Tony Vitello's defending NCAA national champions. He also leads the SEC In pitching victories with 10 and is second in the conference with a 2.84 earned run average. He allowed opposing hitters a .178 batting mark for second place among all SEC hurlers.
Doyle’s 15.5 strikeouts per nine innings also are the best among NCAA mound stars, and his 0.92 WHIP tops all pitchers in the SEC. His 10 pitching victories are the most in the SEC and tied for ninth nationally. His 5.82 hits allowed per nine innings are second in the SEC and 10th in NCAA Division I.
The junior lefty allows just 2.93 walks per nine innings and has given up just 20 extra-base hits to date while recording 10-plus strikeouts in seven of his 2025 starts. He had a save in UT's NCAA Knoxville Regional clinching win over Wake Forest after starting game one of that tourney, pitching the Vols into the NCAA Fayetteville Super Regional.
Florida State’s Lodise was tabbed as the 2025 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year and helped coach Link Jarrett's Seminoles rise to national rankings as high as second and third in various polls in '25. He joins 2024 ACC Player of the Year James Tibbs III as the second FSU standout in succession to nab the honor.
Lodise, also the 2025 ACC Defensive Player of the Year, kept the Seminoles in contention for the ACC title throughout the season with a .976 fielding percentage, participating in 32 double plays with just five miscues in 205 total fielding chances.
The junior from St. Augustine, Florida, paced the team with a .405 batting average, 1.209 OPS, 38 extra-base knocks among his FSU-high 92 hits, 17 home runs, 67 RBI and a .736 slugging percentage via 167 total bases - 34 more than No. 2 on the squad. He topped the ACC In batting average, slugging percentage, hits and total bases as a semifinalist for the Howser Trophy, the Golden Spikes Award and the Brooks Wallace Award.
FSU's all-star shortstop, one of three 2025 Howser Trophy finalists at that position, had a big hand in the Seminoles’ sweep of the NCAA Tallahassee Regional with a 5-2 win over Mississippi State and a trek to the Corvallis Super Regional against Oregon State.
The winner's name is inscribed on the permanent trophy, a bronze bust of Howser, and both the recipient and his school receive a special trophy for their awards' cases.
NCBWA membership includes writers, broadcasters and publicists. Designed to promote and publicize college baseball, it is the sport's only college media-related organization, founded in 1962.
The Howser Trophy was created in 1987, shortly after Howser's death, and has been presented every year except 2020, shortened COVID year. Previous winners of the Howser Trophy presented by The Game Headwear are Mike Fiore, OF, Miami (Fla.), 1987; Robin Ventura, 3B, Oklahoma State, 1988; Scott Bryant, 1B-P, Texas, 1989; Alex Fernandez, P, Miami-Dade Community College South, 1990; Frank Rodriguez, P, Howard College (Texas), 1991; Brooks Kieschnick, UT-P, Texas, 1992 and 1993; Jason Varitek, C, Georgia Tech, 1994; Todd Helton, 1B, Tennessee, 1995; Kris Benson, P, Clemson, 1996; J. D. Drew, OF, Florida State, 1997; Eddy Furniss, 1B, LSU, 1998; Jason Jennings, UT-P, Baylor, 1999; Mark Teixeira, 1B, Georgia Tech, 2000; Mark Prior, P, USC, 2001, Khalil Greene, SS, Clemson, 2002; Rickie Weeks, 2B, Southern U., 2003; Jered Weaver, P, Long Beach State, 2004; Alex Gordon, 3B, Nebraska, 2005; Brad Lincoln, P/DH, Houston, 2006; David Price, P, Vanderbilt, 2007; Buster Posey, C, Florida State, 2008; Stephen Strasburg, P, San Diego State, 2009; Anthony Rendon, 3B, Rice, 2010; Taylor Jungmann, P, Texas, 2011; Mike Zunino, C, Florida, 2012; Kris Bryant, 3B, San Diego, 2013; A.J. Reed, DH-P, Kentucky, 2014; Andrew Benintendi, OF, Arkansas, 2015; Seth Beer, OF, Clemson, 2016; Brendan McKay, DH-P, Louisville, 2017; Brady Singer, P, Florida, 2018; Adley Rutschman, C, Oregon State, 2019; No Award, COVID-19, 2020; Kevin Kopps, P, Arkansas, 2022; Ivan Melendez, 1B, Texas, 2023; and Paul Skenes, P, LSU, 2024.