Ad Disclosure
Charlie Condon, Hagen Smith, and Travis Bazzana are the 3 finalists for the 2024 Golden Spikes Award.
After trimming down a list of 25 semifinalists, USA Baseball announced this season’s 3 finalists for the award on Wednesday. All 3 rank within the top 6 of MLB Pipeline’s Draft Top 200 prospects list and 2 of them (Bazzana and Condon) are still alive in the hunt for a spot in the College World Series. Bazzana’s Beavers are +1300 to win the CWS (FanDuel) while Condon’s Bulldogs are +1400.
Georgia’s Condon set the BBCOR-era home run record this season with 36 bombs so far and was named the SEC Player of the Year for it. The third baseman has tallied 7 multi-homer games in 2024 and, from April 26-May 9 — left the yard in 8 straight games. He finished 1 game shy of another NCAA record. The nation’s leader in batting average has the Bulldogs 2 wins away from the College World Series.
Bazzana – Oregon State’s second baseman – became the Beavers’ all-time leader in hits and home runs this season, crushing a Pac-12-leading 28 homers so far. He currently ranks second in the country in walks (74), on-base percentage (.575), slugging percentage (.937), and OPS (1.512) and took home Pac-12 Player of the Year honors.
Smith was a star for Arkansas all season on the mound. He leads the country in batting average against (.144) and strikeouts per 9 innings (17.3). His 161 total strikeouts rank second in the country and tops in the SEC. The 2.04 ERA was fourth in the country. He also faced Bazzana earlier this season when the Razorbacks won 5-4 thanks in large part to a single-game program record-tying 17 strikeouts. He got Bazzana 3 times that night.
Notably, Florida’s Jac Caglianone — a finalist for the award last season — did not make the final trio this time around. Caglianone posted career-highs this year in batting average, slugging percentage, on-base percentage, hits, and runs scored. Florida won the Stillwater Regional, upsetting the No. 11 national seed to reach the Clemson Super Regional.
The 46th Golden Spikes Award winner will be announced on June 22 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN ahead of Game 1 of the College World Series finals.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
