Junior infielders Darren Baker and Quentin Selma, two of the Bears’ most dynamic players on the plates, have been placed on 2020’s Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award watch list after sophomore tour de forces put them in the national spotlight.

The BBCSA is endowed to high caliber players for athletic performance, academic achievement and character and has nominees spanning the entirety of D1 baseball across 16 conferences. Selma participated in the College Home Run Derby last year and is already slugging .444 just one weekend into the season with 7 RBI.

Baker, likewise, stunned over the summer as a Cape Cod League All-Star for slashing .342/.384/.376 and is a notorious when it comes to stealing bases, nabbing 27 of 28 career attempts.

Both Bears posted high numbers off the field as well — last year, Selma earned the All-Pac-12 Academic Honorable Mention, and both he and Baker were named to All Pac-12 teams. Baker and Selma are notoriously influential big-guns for Cal, and when both are in the lineup, fireworks are routine.

The two Bears find themselves among 36 other contenders for the award in its first year of being a national contest. The winner will be announced in June and the ceremony held in Fort Worth, Texas.