After being named 2017 Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, Tawa lived up to the hype at Stanford his freshman year. The right hander batted .313 and knocked in 37 RBI's in 160 at-bats for the Cardinals in the 2018 regular season. Tawa got off to a hot start, racking up hits in his first six games and totaling 50 hits in his first season.
In high school Tawa was named Gatorade Football Player of the Year three times at West Linn High School. Tawa played in six state championships in nine varsity seasons (baseball, basketball, and football combined), and led his baseball teams to three league titles and two state runner-ups.