All-Area Baseball POY: With ‘flair and freedom,’ Davis High’s Talbot put on masterclass in center field
2025 Standard-Examiner All-Area Baseball Player of the Year
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- Davis High’s Owen Talbot poses for a portrait outside the school on Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kaysville. Talbot is the 2025 Standard-Examiner All-Area Baseball Player of the Year.
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- Davis High’s Owen Talbot loses his cap fielding the ball during a Region 1 baseball game versus Syracuse on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Kaysville.
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- Davis High’s Owen Talbot poses for a portrait outside the school on Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kaysville. Talbot is the 2025 Standard-Examiner All-Area Baseball Player of the Year.
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- Davis High’s Jaxon Marble (8) and Owen Talbot (1) celebrate a home run during the 6A state baseball semifinals versus Lehi on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, at the UCCU Ballpark at Utah Valley University in Orem.
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- Davis High’s Owen Talbot poses for a portrait outside the school on Monday, June 16, 2025, in Kaysville. Talbot is the 2025 Standard-Examiner All-Area Baseball Player of the Year.
KAYSVILLE — Baseball is a non-negotiable for Davis High’s Owen Talbot.
Of course, Talbot’s not playing the game for fear of being chastised or purely for scholarship. The outbound senior genuinely loves playing center field and doing it with “flair and freedom,” he said, on every line drive, pop fly and deep shot that dared cross paths with a two-time All-Star.
A two-sport athlete and three-year letterman, Talbot transitioned from running back to outfielder pretty easily over his prep career. He’s a third-generation Dart, an incoming freshman at the College of Southern Idaho, and the 2025 Standard-Examiner All-Area Baseball Player of the Year.
Hitting .456 with 40 RBIs and an on-base percentage of .533, Talbot follows teammate and fellow senior, Wally Grant, as the second consecutive Davis player awarded the title. He’s also the second player of Josh Godfrey’s program to receive the honor since starting at Davis in 2017.
The Darts fell a game shy of the state championship series this spring, meaning Talbot’s window for pursuing a state title, nearly five decades removed from the last one, is finished. As the chase ends, so does Talbot’s time as Godfrey’s go-to guy in the outfield.
“They’ve been through this, thick and thin, with me for four years,” Godfrey said. “That main goal was getting to the state title game, and we kind of set our sights on that for about three years, and we almost came to exactly what we had planned out.
“Having Owen man all that is a luxury that I’m now without. … Having had that for three years, that’s going to be tough to replace.”
As the No. 3 seed, Davis squandered a 4-0 lead in Game 3 of the 6A state semifinals vs. No. 10 Lehi in Orem, and the Pioneers carried on for a 7-5 win and a seat beside top seed, and eventual champion, American Fork.
Going three rounds with Lehi, Davis had never sniffed the championship quite like this. A pitching staff marred by injury returned a key asset in junior ace Kaleb Weaver, and the Darts were hitting .340 overall with 200-plus RBIs on the year.
In short, the pieces were there.
But even in the fallout, Talbot carried himself like anyone but someone who felt marred by their final high school baseball game. Instead, he treated the result as just that — a result.
“It was an amazing season and I couldn’t ask for anything more out of the guys,” Talbot said. “We tried our best and sometimes that’s just how it goes. I love the guys, so it was more of a ‘Love ya, it was awesome.'”
Left fielder Tyson Baggett, a junior, and right fielder Carter Garrett, a senior, also played all 31 games of Talbot’s senior season together. Next spring, two-thirds of the Davis outfield must be replaced.
“I had good guys around me,” Talbot said. “I played with a lot more freedom, I felt like, because when you got people you know are backing you up, you can go for any ball you want (and) that was really nice. Even if you miss a ball, you’ve got someone to back you up there.”
It should surprise very few that Talbot has his eyes set on college baseball, and his next stop in Twin Falls, Idaho, will determine whether his ceiling rests at the same level as his grandfather and BYU alum Jim Talbot, drafted by the New York Yankees and Seattle Pilots during the 1970s.
Two of Talbot’s brothers played high school ball in Davis County, and his father, Tyler, played with Godfrey at Davis in the not-too-distant past. Naturally, Talbot wants in on a family tradition.
“With my grandpa, and how good of a player he was, you kind of wish you could follow his footsteps and maybe go (Division) I, you know?” Talbot said. “It’s a little bit intimidating. You’ve got people watching you a lot, seeing your potential and knowing what you could be.”
It’s a different sports world now, even versus 10 years ago, but the dream stays the same for Talbot, who’s betting on himself amid a transition from high school to college ball and adulthood.
But, as Talbot said, those Davis ballclubs and mentors like Godfrey make for a safe bet.
“I can definitely say, after my time at Davis, I’ve become a better man,” Talbot said. “That’s what really matters, not only a better baseball player but a better man.”
Connect with sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.
