Oregon State's Travis Bazzana is Golden Spikes Finalist

Kentucky will have its hands full this weekend with Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana, who is one of three finalists for the Golden Spikes Award.

The Golden Spikes Award is given to the best player in college baseball. Bazzana is joined by Arkansas right-hander Hagen Smith and Georgia first baseman/outfielder Charlie Condon as finalists for the award.

“Yeah, so that’s the beauty of our conference is when you look at even the mock draft now and you see who the projected top hitters are in our conference but also the country, I think we’ve faced them all, haven’t we, after this weekend,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said on Friday.

Kentucky is 4-1 in games featuring Smith and Condon, so it’ll look to keep its winning ways against the best players in the country going this weekend.

“We continue to watch video on him,” Mingione said on Wednesday. “He is a super talented player and not only does he have the ability to hit for power, but he can absolutely fly. This is a little different from some of the other guys, where if you just walk them there’s no threat of a stolen base or a double or triple to score them. This guy is super, super talented on so many levels and his speed is one of the things that changes the game for them.”

Bazzana will go down in history as the final Pac-12 Player of the Year, as the league officially ends after 109 years following the conclusion of the College World Series.

The Aussie is near the top of every statistical category in the country. He hit for a .415 batting average (5th in NCAA) with 28 home runs (T-6th in NCAA), 86 hits (T-50th in NCAA), 74 walks (2nd in NCAA), a .937 SLG% (2nd in NCAA), and a .575 OB% (2nd in NCAA).

He’s near the top of every 2024 MLB Mock Draft, marking the second consecutive season the Cats will play a projected top three pick in the Super Regional (LSU’s Paul Skenes & Dylan Crews in 2023). Bazzana is projected No. 3 to the Colorado Rockies in ESPN’s latest Mock Draft.

Bazzana tore through the Corvallis Regional, as he went 4-11 with two home runs and four RBI over the Beaver’s three-game span against Tulane and UC-Irvine (twice).

The second baseman has played against just one SEC team this season however, back on February 23 against Arkansas. Bazzana went 1-4 at the plate with a stolen base in Oregon State’s 5-4 loss.

Game one of the Super Regional is scheduled for Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. EST (ESPNU), and game two is scheduled at 9:00 p.m. EST (ESPNU) on Sunday night. Game three (if necessary) would be played on Monday.

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