California junior Caleb Lomavita has been named a semifinalist for the 2024 Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year award as announced by the Wichita Sports Commission.
 
Previously known as the Johnny Bench Award, the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award honors the nation's top Division 1 collegiate catcher as voted on by head coaches and sports information directors. Nominations for 2024 included 69 individual athletes, 67 schools, and 25 different Division I conferences. Of those 69 athletes, 16 were chosen as semi-finalists for this year's award. Finalists will be revealed on June 2 with the winner being announced at the Wichita Sports Banquet on June 26.
 
The native of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Lomavita is having yet another tremendous campaign. Earlier this month, he was named a semifinalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, which is awarded to the top collegiate baseball player. The three-time All-Pac-12 honoree and 2024 Pac-12 All-Defensive Team honoree has put up career-bests in average (.317), runs (48), hits (69), doubles (13), RBI (50), and on-base percentage (.391). He has slugged a team-leading 14 home runs and stolen 12 bases.
 
A mainstay at the top of the Golden Bear lineup, Lomavita is currently seventh all-time in program history with 37 home runs. He is one RBI shy of cracking Cal's top-10 for RBI in a career.

Lomavita is one of three Pac-12 players to be named a Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year award semifinalist, along with  Arizona State's Ryan Campos and Stanford's Malcolm Moore.

Lomavita is the first Golden Bear to be named a semifinalist for the Buster Posey Award since Korey Lee in 2019. Previous winners of the award include Oregon State's Adley Rutchman (2019), Garrett Stubbs (2015) and Jeff Clement (2005) from USC, and Ryan Garko of Stanford (2003).

The Bears return to action Thursday night when they take on top-seeded Arizona for a chance to advance to the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament semifinals. Thursday's game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. PT and will be televised on Pac-12 Network.

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