OMAHA – The Big Ten Baseball Tournament is underway, with plenty on the line for schools like USC and Oregon, who are vying to be regional hosts. Then there is Michigan, which is trying to earn its way into postseason play while living on the bubble. This weekend will be filled with plenty of intrigue, MLB draft prospects, and scouts. Lots of scouts.
Roch Cholowsky and Mason Edwards win Big Ten Honors
Prior to the games starting, the conference announced its season awards, headlined by UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky winning Big Ten Player of the Year and USC left-handed pitcher Mason Edwards winning Big Ten Pitcher of the Year.
Cholowsky wins the honors for a second consecutive season largely thanks to his overall season numbers. In 54 regular-season games, Cholowsky batted .330/.465/.684 with 21 home runs and 59 RBIs. Throw in his defense and leadership qualities, for the Big Ten’s most dominant team ever is why conference officials gave Cholowsky the nod. More on his conference numbers later.
Edwards is deserving of Pitcher of the Year and was the best performer in the conference regardless of position. In 14 starts, Edwards led the NCAA with 154 strikeouts and had a season ERA of 1.49. Against Big Ten opponents, Edwards made 10 starts, going 5-0 with a 2.09 ERA and 113 strikeouts.
All-Big Ten First Team Position Players
| Position | Player | School |
|---|---|---|
| Catcher | Weber Neels | Minnesota |
| First Base | Mulivai Levu | UCLA |
| Second Base | Colby Turner | Michigan |
| Shortstop | Roch Cholowsky | UCLA |
| Third Base | Drew Smith | Oregon |
| Outfield | Hogan Denny | Indiana |
| Outfield | Will Gasparino | UCLA |
| Outfield | Jackson Hotchkiss | Washington |
| Utility | Michael Anderson | Penn State |
| Utility | Dylan Carey | Nebraska |
| Utility | Roman Martin | UCLA |
All-Big Ten First Team Pitchers
| Role | Pitcher | School |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | Carson Jasa | Nebraska |
| Starter | Logan Reddemann | UCLA |
| Starter | Mason Edwards | USC |
| Starter | Grant Govel | USC |
| Reliever | Tanner Bradley | Oregon |
| Reliever | Easton Hawk | UCLA |
| Reliever | Wylan Moss | UCLA |
With a path to earn No. 1 seed, who will USC start on Friday?
USC plays its first tournament game on Friday morning with the first pitch around 9 a.m. Edwards would be on schedule to make that start, but the Trojans' coach, Andy Stankiewicz, has the option of holding his ace back a day. Doing so would have Edwards start around a more normal time (2 p.m.) and have him ready for a possible rematch with UCLA.
The Trojans will need to win on Friday and Saturday to give themselves a chance to host a Regional. D1Baseball.com has USC as a No. 2 seed in the Morgantown Regional (West Virginia), sitting behind Arkansas, Ole Miss, Coastal Carolina, and Oregon State as the best options to host. Missouri shocked Ole Miss in the SEC tournament, and Coastal Carolina was beaten by Louisiana in the Sun Belt tournament, so cards are falling in favor for USC’s chances of earning a No. 1 seed.
Michigan gets big boost from Colby Turner and Cade Montgomery
Colby Turner named First Team All-Big Ten Team
The most impressive performance in the tournament’s first day was Michigan dominating Rutgers en route to a 10-run rule victory in seven innings, 10-0. With the bases loaded, Michigan second baseman Colby Turner had the walk-off two RBI single, capping off his three-hit game against the Scarlet Knights.
Turner was named First Team All-Big Ten for his outstanding 2026 campaign. Last year, Turner hit .238/.347/.427 with five home runs in 45 games. After getting stronger in the offseason, Turner turned it on at the plate this season, hitting .382/.446/.655 with 14 home runs and 18 doubles in 54 regular-season games, all while playing good defense at second base and swiping 12 bases.
“It means a lot,” Turner said postgame on Tuesday. “I’m grateful for that honor, and couldn’t have done it without the coaches and all my teammates.”
Against Rutgers, Turner went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a stolen base. He made a very nice diving stop in the field to rob a hit.
On the conference honor, Michigan coach Tracy Smith said, “I love it for him because he's put the work in. He works really hard.”
“Roch Cholowsky, tremendous player, but if you line it up statistically, you could throw Colby [Turner] in as a legitimate candidate for Player of the Year.”
| 2026 Big Ten Stats | GP | AVG | OBP | SLG | 2B | HR | RBI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roch Cholowsky | 30 | .308 | .458 | .487 | 4 | 6 | 25 |
| Colby Turner | 30 | .371 | .448 | .655 | 9 | 8 | 24 |
From an MLB Draft perspective, Turner might be getting overlooked, as it’s just one season of high performance, and he’s most likely to be a second baseman professionally. I have Turner as a possible fifth-to-seventh-round target. With his improvement in making contact and his high motor, I imagine Turner as a future super-utility infielder with a good chance of reaching the majors. Imagine a possible trajectory like current White Sox second baseman Chase Meidroth.
“I love it when guys put the work in to get the results to show,” said Smith. “He means a lot to our team and I don't think we're gonna get him back, so I'm just gonna enjoy him while I have him.”
Cade Montgomery stymies Rutgers
In his first start of 2026, Cade Montgomery was impressive against Stanford, allowing one unearned run over 6⅓ innings while striking out five. But in his next three outings, Montgomery allowed at least four runs before facing the mighty UCLA lineup. In a brutal beatdown, Montgomery allowed 10 runs in 3⅔ innings and was moved to the bullpen.
Leading up to the Big Ten Conference Tournament, Montgomery was piecing together good results, but didn’t pitch in the last regular-season series against Ohio State. That irked coach Tracy Smith.
“I didn't feel good about that. We had a rough weekend and he didn't pitch,” said Smith.
“I mean, he's good and we just haven't had him in this role. We've asked him to do a different role based on the composition of our team. He was a starter prior to coming here. He started for us a little bit early. But we felt like we wanted to be strong on the back end and therefore moved him back there.”
With his team living on the NCAA bubble, giving Montgomery the start against Rutgers proved a stroke of genius.
Frequently hitting 95 mph with his four-seamer while mixing in his cutter that sits between 88-90 mph, Montgomery put on a show, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit and two walks, while striking out six on 92 pitches. It was a career-best day for Montgomery, but he wouldn’t say it was his best stuff.
“Probably not. I think that's the beauty of baseball. You don't necessarily have to have your best stuff to go out and do your best,” said Montgomery.
“We needed a special performance today, given what had happened last weekend, and he gave it to us. I'm not shocked, honestly. He's tough, good, talented, and quite frankly, what he was supposed to do,” said Smith.
Montgomery is a junior and draft eligible. He’s a bit undersized at 5’11”, but he's has touched 98 mph this season as he likes to ramp up the velocity on two strikes. I wouldn’t project a starting pitcher for Montgomery, but with his level of velocity, he’s worth a late round or post-10th round pick to work him as a reliever.
Illinois finds building blocks in AJ Putty and Aidan Flinn
It was a tough Big Ten Tournament for Illinois as they lost a lead late in their opening game against Iowa, and were up 1-0 in the 8th inning before Purdue scraped together three runs to end the Fighting Illini’s season. Despite the disappointing result, freshmen AJ Putty and Aidan Flinn are strong building blocks for Illinois.
Putty is a 6’4” first baseman from McHenry, Illinois, and played his high school ball with Huntley High School. Featuring a very high leg kick, much higher than some pitchers have, Putty had his breakout game early against Coastal Carolina on February 22, going 5-for-6 with three doubles, a home run, and 7 RBI. Despite a dismal regular season series against Indiana, in which Putty went 0-for-11, he finished .301 with eight home runs.
Against Iowa, Putty was able to shed the previous weekend’s performance as he hit a solo home run en route to a 3-for-4 day. In a win-or-go-home game against Purdue, Putty continued his hot hitting, batting 2-for-4 and driving in Illinois’ lone run.
For a while that one run looked to be enough support with how well Aidan Flinn was throwing. The 6’6” southpaw was dotting his fastball all over the strike zone, frustrating the veteran Boilermakers lineup. Setting a personal high in pitches thrown, Flinn was extended into the eighth inning, but it was apparent he ran out of gas. His location left him, as Flinn hit back-to-back hitters and walked the next batter to load the bases. Illinois coach Dan Hartleb pulled his freshman starter after 100 pitches. In the next at-bat, Purdue’s Eli Anderson hit a two-run single, which proved to be the game-winner.
Flinn’s final line: 7.1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. Asked postgame what impressed him the most about Flinn’s outing, Hatleb said, “He can pound the fastball both sides of the zone, and he's got great life. He's a competitive kid. Everything he does is very competitive.”
“I thought the difference when we faced him the first time in the regular season and got him out in the third inning, today he was able to really locate on both sides of the plate,” said Purdue coach Greg Goff. “Then, man, he threw the breaking ball really well. He threw it at will.”
Both Putty and Flinn impressed in Omaha. Next is how they work to improve this offseason to make another big leap in 2027.
“It’s a situation where they need to continue to work to get better,” said Hatleb. “They need to be guys that give us some leadership, and then everybody around them needs to work to get better.”
Roch Report: Can Cholowsky deliver in the postseason?
In the last regular season series against Washington, Roch Cholowsky went 1-for-8 with a single, five walks, three strikeouts, and was hit by a pitch. Sure, reaching base seven times in three games is good for the on-base percentage, but the lack of loud contact after hitting three home runs against Oregon the previous weekend was disappointing, especially against a Washington pitching staff that finished with a 5.66 ERA in conference play.
Now back in Omaha, Cholowsky will have lots of eyes on him as more than 40 MLB scouts and executives are expected to be in attendance on Friday. Last year, Cholowsky put on an absolute show in the tournament, hitting a home run in three straight games and adding two doubles. After a 0-for-4 performance in the Big Ten Championship game against Nebraska, Cholowsky struggled in subsequent postseason play, as he did not record an extra-base hit. He batted 8-for-23 in Regionals and Super Regionals and went 1-for-12 in the College World Series.
UCLA has enough talent this year to win a National Championship even if Cholowsky has another lackluster postseason. But we’ve been waiting on Cholowsky to end this first-overall pick debate with a scorcher at the plate. Now with legacies riding on the line, can Cholowsky deliver?
Big Ten Tournament Weekend Schedule
Friday (times in CT)
- 9 a.m. - Game 11: USC vs. Michigan State
- 1 p.m. - Game 12: UCLA vs. Winner of Purdue vs. Iowa
- 5 p.m. - Game 13: Nebraska vs. Winner of Ohio State vs. Michigan
- 9 p.m. - Game 14: Oregon vs. Washington
Saturday
- 2 p.m. - Game 15: Winner of Game 11 vs. Winner of Game 12
- 6 p.m. - Game 16: Winner of Game 13 vs. Winner of Game 14
Sunday
- 2 p.m. - Big Ten Tournament Championship
