SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Jackson Flora is, officially, one of the best of the best. On Thursday, UC Santa Barbara's ace pitcher was named as a semifinalist for the two most prestigious awards in college baseball: USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award, which honors the top amateur baseball player in the country each year, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's Dick Howser Trophy, which honors the top college baseball player each year and is regarded as the sport's equivalent of college football's Heisman Trophy. Flora is the second Gaucho to be named a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, joining Dillon Tate in 2015.
 
The ace of a staff that finished third in the nation in ERA in 2015, Tate helped UC Santa Barbara earn one of the top 16 national seeds in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in its history with his own ERA at just 2.26 and his 111 strikeouts putting him amongst the top 25 pitchers in the country. Tate was the hardest pitcher to hit in The Big West that season, with opponents hitting just .188 against him and teams averaging under six hits per nine innings when facing him. At the end of the season, Tate was selected fourth overall in the Major League Baseball Draft, at the time the highest a Gaucho had ever been picked.
 
Here in 2026, Flora stands alone atop the country's ERA leaderboard, the ace of a staff that enters the final weekend of the regular season ranked sixth nationally in Team ERA. His 103 strikeouts are 12^th among all Division-I pitchers but are just part of his profile as the top run-preventer in college baseball this season as he ranks among the top ten in both hits allowed per nine innings and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched). Between March 6 and April 10, he pitched 38 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings, the longest verifiable streak in program history. He is also on pace to break UC Santa Barbara's Division-I single-season ERA record of 1.71, with his ERA currently at 1.15. When the MLB Draft comes this summer, experts project him to be the first pitcher off the board, with the majority of mock drafts predicting the San Francisco Giants to select him with the fourth overall pick.
 
Fan voting will play a part in the Golden Spikes Award in 2026. Following today's semifinalist announcement, Gaucho fans can vote for Flora on GoldenSpikesAward.com to help him become one of the three finalists. USA Baseball will announce the finalists for the award on June 10, and fan voting will once again open at GoldenSpikesAward.com to help determine the winner before closing on June 28. The finalists for and winner of the Dick Howser Trophy will be decided by NCBWA members, with the finalists announced on June 4 and the winner on June 12.