Prospect rankings are often meaningless.

They routinely fail to predict a 17-year-old’s skillset at 21 or the future impact they’ll have on a team.

UCLA baseball had Baseball America’s most premier 2021 recruiting class, ultimately winning 40 games that year before falling in the NCAA regionals.

But the team missed the NCAA tournament the following year – winning just 28 games – and failed to even qualify for the Pac-12 tournament the next, finishing 19-33.

And even if a player lives up to the hype, retaining an entire class can be a tall task.

Thatcher Hurd, the No. 36 player in the 2021 cohort, per Perfect Game, transferred to LSU after his freshman year, and No. 45 Gage Jump did the same after his sophomore campaign.

No. 164 Alonzo Tredwell and Ethan Flanagan were picked in the 2022 MLB Draft, and No. 43 Cody Schrier, No. 195 Luke Jewett and No. 455 Duce Gourson were all selected in 2023’s Draft.

This season, just three Bruins of their 15-member 2021 class are still members of the team.

But the 2023 crop – also named Baseball America’s No. 1 recruiting class in the country – has been different.

Despite last season being UCLA’s worst since 2005, just two players – right-handers Owen Egan and Matthew Gobel, who pitched just 11 innings last season – didn’t return for the 2025 campaign. And it’s the Bruins’ sophomores – that class of 2023 – that catapulted the team to first place in the Big Ten.

“It’s a number one recruiting class in the country for a reason,” said coach John Savage. “These guys are a year older, they’re playing and they know the program.”

No player in the nation has been as valuable as Roch Cholowsky this season, according to 643 Charts. The sophomore shortstop, who was the highest ranked player in UCLA’s 2023 cohort, has been worth 3.87 WAR – .18 wins more than the next best player.

Cholowsky leads the Big Ten with a 174 wRC+, and his .366 batting average, .517 OBP and .724 slugging percentage are all team highs. The sophomore has been an iron man at UCLA, starting every game since his freshman year and not committing an error since Feb. 25 in his first full season playing.

As one of the Bruins’ three team captains, Cholowsky has been praised by Savage and his teammates for his leadership. Multiple players said this season’s turnaround is attributed to the team’s improved chemistry.

“The camaraderie,” said sophomore second baseman Cameron Kim. “We just get along really well. … Roch’s done a really good job being a team leader, bringing us all together.”

After Martin ordered an undersized infielder’s glove to play third base, Cholowsky, who spent a majority of his freshman year at the hot corner, gave his fellow sophomore his glove from last season, breaking the long-standing baseball superstition where players don’t share fielding gloves.

UCLA boasts seven qualified hitters with an OPS north of .800, and six are sophomores: Cholowsky, first baseman Mulivai Levu, third baseman Roman Martin, left fielder Dean West, and catchers Cashel Dugger and Blake Balsz.

“They played,” Savage said. “A lot of people don’t play freshmen, … and they played, we wore it. And you can see some of the benefits, clearly.”

Levu struck out 27.3% of the time in his freshman campaign but shrunk that mark to 12.4% playing in the Northwoods League over the summer. The first baseman has seemed to carry that improvement into his sophomore season, striking out 17.2% of the time while raising his OPS from .809 in 2024 to .989 in 2025.

Martin had a relatively slow start to the season, hitting 10 points below the Mendoza line through his first 12 games, but has since hit .446 over his last 23 to raise his batting average to .323 on the season with a .912 OPS.

However, unlike many of his second-year teammates, West did not get a full freshman season, playing just 20 games in 2024 due to injury. But after hitting .226 over his first 24 games, a 22-for-46 performance over his active 12-game hitting streak has elevated his batting average to .313.

On the mound, sophomore right-hander Landon Stump – the only Bruin to make a start every weekend this season – has arguably been UCLA’s most consistent pitcher in 2025. Stump posted an 8.62 ERA across his final 31.1 innings in his freshman campaign but said his improved conditioning over the offseason prepared him better for this season, where he’s posted a 4.17 ERA across 41 innings pitched.

“Last year, I was kind of pushing through some back problems, so it wasn’t at my best,” Stump said. “In the summer, I was able to go back home and kind of get stronger.”

Savage has seldom used the transfer portal to acquire talent – with redshirt senior AJ Salgado and redshirt junior southpaw Ian May marking his only transfers who aren’t graduate students. Instead, the coach has often opted to develop talent acquired from the high school ranks.

Since Savage has helmed the program, 129 Bruins have been selected in the MLB Draft and 29 have reached MLB.

The 2023 class seems like it’ll soon raise that number when its members become eligible for the 2026 Draft.

But for now, they can set their sights on bringing UCLA to its first NCAA regional since 2022 and first College World Series since 2013.