Individually reaching the mountaintop of a sport? Incredible.
Three former high school teammates reaching that mountaintop the same year? Unforgettable.
Roch Cholowsky (UCLA), Gavin Turley (Oregon State) and Carson Johnson (Arizona) will represent Chandler’s Hamilton High School in Omaha, Nebraska at the 2025 College World Series, which begins Friday.
“Me and my roommate (UCLA catcher Cashel Dugger) were sitting at lunch, we’re saying it kind of feels like Christmas Eve because tomorrow we get to hop on a plane and head to Omaha,” Cholowsky said Tuesday before the Bruins play Saturday against Murray State in their first appearance since 2013.
The Huskies trio combined to win six 6A AIA state championships and played together on the 2022 title squad – “one of the best teams we’ve ever had,” coach Mike Woods said.
Turley and Johnson joined Cholowsky in not only shining the limelight on their alma mater but also on West Coast baseball at recent Pac-12-aligned schools.
“It’s been about the SEC and the ACC,” Woods said. “And the fact that the conference (Pac-12) disbanded was just a bad look for the West Coast. So, a little redemption for those schools. No doubt.”
Woods has presided over nine state championships in his time at Hamilton and also attended the CWS for two of his former players. He watched 2017 Hamilton graduate Nick Brueser (Stanford) play in the 2021 edition and 2022 graduate Kole Klecker (TCU) be the game-one starting pitcher as a freshman in 2023.
Now, a third reunion is in the works.
“I have gotten in contact with Gavin and Carson already and we’re all planning on seeing each other and hanging out,” Cholowsky said. “Plus, we got Coach Woods coming out to the first two days (Friday and Saturday).”
Brett Palmer, Hamilton’s athletic director since the 2018-19 school year, saw all three young men “grind it out” through the ranks to reach a level few even sniff.
“Coach Woods always did a great job keeping them leveled, you know, never getting too high, never getting too low, make sure they always competed,” Palmer said. “It was fun to watch each of their journeys … and now here they are, all three of them, in the College World Series.”
This meet-up was etched into their postseason schedules, but the trio frequently stays in touch regardless.
“We’re all still super close,” Cholowsky said. “When we go home over the break, we go work out at Hamilton or we just go and hang out and do what we were doing in high school.”
After not seeing action in 2024, Johnson has made 12 appearances as a relief pitcher for the Wildcats, led by coach Chip Hale. In 12 1/3 innings pitched, the 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman has struck out seven, walked five and allowed 11 earned runs to a tune of an 8.03 ERA.
Johnson has two wins to his credit, both in his first two collegiate outings. They included one-inning and two-inning shutouts in wins against New Mexico and Pepperdine on Feb. 18 and March 6. He put up a zero in eight of his 12 appearances, the last of which came on May 15 at Houston.
“He’s a good arm, he was a good kid, and for him to get an opportunity to play at Arizona was a big deal,” Woods said of the 2023 Hamilton graduate.
In his time as a Husky, Johnson was named by Perfect Game as the fifth-best right-handed pitcher in Arizona and 10th-best overall.
The Wildcats, who qualified for their 19th CWS and first since the 2021 season, face Coastal Carolina on Friday at 11 a.m. MST in the championship series opener, with live TV coverage on ESPN.
“Gavin, I’d say, started out as being pure offense,” Woods said.
Turley, the 6-foot-1 junior, has fit that billing with a program-redefining year at the plate.
He established the Oregon State record for career home runs (45, Travis Bazzana) on April 19 and career RBIs (179, Michael Conforto) on June 1. Entering the CWS, Turley has hit 52 home runs and drove in 186 runs as a Beaver.
“Tremendous power, bat speed, that skill set he has,” Woods said. “(He) had to learn defense a little bit. Now he’s doing a really good job.”
Hamilton forms a dogpile after defeating Chandler 11-1 in the AIA Baseball 6A State Championship on May 17, 2022 at Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe. (Photo courtesy of Chandler Unified School District)
With a glove on his left hand, Turley has converted 71 of 74 chances for outs (68 putouts and three assists) in 2025.
Adding in a .311 career batting average – a career-best .346 this season with 80 hits, 19 home runs and 12 doubles in 62 games – it is clearly evident that Turley has continued to develop his power.
However, as the collegiate game tends to be more nuanced than high school, Woods said Turley has sprinkled in bunting.
“I watch him on TV, he’s dropping down bunts,” Woods said. “I used to tease him that they’re going to make him bunt at Oregon State. I go, ‘You’re never going to bunt for us (Hamilton) but they’re going to make you do it, so might as well learn it now.’”
As a Husky, Turley earned 6A AIA All-Conference First Team honors in 2021 and 2022. He was also a 19th-round selection by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2022 MLB First-Year Player Draft but did not sign with the club.
Turley and Oregon State follow Johnson’s Arizona at 4 p.m. MST against Louisville on ESPN.
“How much (Cholowsky) was going to hit would be the issue because he had the defensive skillset that was just really unique,” Woods said. “And then he really started coming on as an offensive player.”
Proof of that is found in the accolades piling up for the sophomore this season, as Cholowsky was named the Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, the first such defensive award in UCLA baseball history.
He also was named NCAA Division I Player of the Year by Perfect Game and is one of four finalists for the Dick Howser Award, which recognizes the nation’s top baseball player. Hamilton and UCLA faithful will find out if Cholowsky receives the prestigious honor on Friday at 7:30 a.m. MST on MLB Network, just prior to the CWS beginning in Omaha.
Two baseball players in uniform standing on a field, one in a UCLA outfit and the other in an OSU outfit.
Roch Cholowsky (UCLA) and Gavin Turley (Oregon State) standing side by side on a baseball field. The backdrop is a softly lit baseball field, with the grass transitioning to dirt further back. (Photo courtesy of Tika Cholowsky)
The shortstop Cholowsky was already recognized on a regional stage, earning District 9 Player of the Year on June 6, which acknowledges the best among the following states: Arizona, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.
“It goes to show the amount of work that has been put in over the last however many years just growing up playing ball,” Cholowsky, a 2023 Hamilton graduate, said. “The goal is to always get to Omaha, and whatever comes along with that, comes.”
Some of the numbers that justify his many awards and considerations include a .367 batting average, 23 home runs, 73 RBIs and .494 on-base percentage in 63 games.
His father, Dan, influenced his track in the game, him having played eight minor league seasons and a 2015 California Athletics Hall of Fame inductee. But Cholowsky used football at Hamilton – as a quarterback and punter – to gain a character trait he could not in baseball.
“The football side just helped with the leadership role,” Cholowsky said. “Being a quarterback was a lot of fun for me. I honestly enjoyed football more than I did baseball growing up.
“That was also a reason I played a lot of sports growing up so I’m not playing baseball 12 months a year. … I actually thought throwing the football helped my arm out. … I wouldn’t swing a bat for those five, six months.”
Before the offensive stats started jumping off the board, Woods said Cholowsky “always could play shortstop,” the opposite of the older, offensive Turley.
“He puts the work in but it comes easy to him,” Woods said. “I couldn’t be more proud of him. … He’s a special player. They don’t come around very often.”
As a Husky, Cholowsky earned a 6A AIA All-Conference First Team nod in 2022 and was named the conference player of the year in 2023.
“Not only are these guys going to these big schools, they’re succeeding,” Woods said. “(Hamilton baseball) got no championships, but we got three shots at it this year.”