OMAHA, Neb. — Georgia's Charlie Condon was selected as the winner of the Dick Howser Trophy for 2024, honored as the national player of the year in college baseball after he led the country in home runs and batting average this season.
Condon, a 6-foot-6, 216-pound redshirt sophomore from Marietta and the Walker School, batted .433 and hit 37 homers, the most by an NCAA Division I player since Rice's Lance Berkman had 41 in 1997. Defensively, Condon played at first base, at third base and in the outfield, committing just four errors in 163 chances.
He is projected to be an early pick in Major League Baseball's amateur draft next month.
The consensus All-America first-team selection and the Southeastern Conference player of the year, he became the first Georgia player to win the Howser Trophy, which is awarded based on voting by members of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
"This is a very prestigious award, and it's been fun being around the people associated with the Dick Howser Trophy and the Howser family," Condon in a release from the Bulldogs. "It meant a lot to be up for the award and now also to win it. I've said before it's an individual recognition, but it comes from a big support staff including family, teammates and coaches from Georgia and a loving group in Athens. I'm honored to bring the award back to represent the University of Georgia."
Condon helped the Bulldogs to a 43-17 record this year, including a 17-13 showing against Southeastern Conference competition during the regular season. They were eliminated in the first round of the SEC tournament, but then were among the league's 11 members to make the 64-team field for the NCAA Division I tournament and were seeded seventh nationally.
Georgia went 3-0 in the NCAA's regional round but lost twice in its best-of-three Athens Super Regional to No. 10 North Carolina State of the Atlantic Coast Conference with the final spot in the College World Series on the line. The Wolfpack's advancement gave the ACC and the SEC an even split of the eight berths in the double-elimination event in Omaha, which started Friday.
Condon joined the Bulldogs as a walk-on player after being lightly recruited coming out of high school, redshirted in 2022, then broke out last year by hitting .386 with 25 homers. Georgia missed the NCAA tournament in 2023, but this year's return yielded the program's seventh regional championship and first under Wes Johnson, who took over as head coach in the offseason.
"It's an extreme honor for Charlie to be the Dick Howser Trophy winner," Johnson said in Georgia's release. "You think about it, 300 teams in college baseball, and all the players on every team and to be recognized as the best player in college baseball in that pool is hard to describe and to put into words. What he's done for the University of Georgia and our baseball program in a short time is unrivaled.
"The great thing about Charlie is you always hope your best player is a great human being, who is caring and a great teammate, and how important it is to develop yourself and your teammates through leadership and hard work. Charlie checks all those boxes. It's an experience I'll never forget, and for the rest of my coaching career, I would bet I'll never have another Charlie Condon. For me, it's a season I'll never forget, and I'm one of Charlie Condon's biggest fans the rest of his life."
Other Howser Trophy finalists were Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana, Wake Forest pitcher Chase Burns, Florida first baseman-pitcher Jac Caglianone and Hagen Smith of Arkansas. Along with Condon, they are all in their third year of college. Burns joined the Demon Deacons as a transfer after playing the past two years at Tennessee.
Bazzana, Condon and Smith are finalists for another player of the year honor, the Golden Spikes Award, which is presented by USA Baseball. The winner will be announced on June 22 in Omaha ahead of the opening game of the best-of-three CWS finals.
The Howser Trophy honors the memory of Dick Howser, a two-time All-America shortstop for Florida State (1957-58) who was later an MLB manager with the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees. The award has been presented since 1987, shortly after Howser's death.