Aiva Arquette had no intention to change schools after his second season at Washington.

The Saint Louis alum and former Star-Advertiser All-State first-teamer in baseball and Player of the Year in basketball was coming off an All-Pac-12 sophomore campaign for the Huskies in which he batted .325 with 14 doubles, 12 homers and 36 RBIs.

He was looking forward to a summer in the Cape Cod League to continue his growth, with the MLB Draft looming in the future for the 6-foot-4 middle infield prospect.

Then the news came in late June that his head coach at UW, Jason Kelly, was leaving to be an associate head coach and pitching coach at Texas A&M.

That changed everything for Arquette, who will now play his junior season down the I-5 freeway from UW’s campus at Oregon State.

“I decided to just enter (the transfer portal) just after (the coaching news),” Arquette said in a phone interview Thursday. “It was definitely a hard time. (Washington) was a home for me and I have family up there and I’d have dinners with them every Sunday night, so it hit a little hard when I decided to move on.”

Arquette spent the month of July balancing playing with the Chatham Anglers with talking to coaches and taking visits.

He hit .291 with four doubles, three homers and 21 RBIs in 103 at-bats with the Anglers in the Cape Cod League while playing second base, shortstop and third.

He also visited Oregon State, Oklahoma State, Mississippi State and Arizona State, where he could have reunited with high school teammate Nu’u Contrades, after narrowing his college choices.

All four visits were great, he said, with no negative experiences. Ultimately, the chance to stay in the Pacific Northwest is what drove Arquette to commit to the Beavers.

“I think I was more comfortable staying in that type of environment and I think Oregon State, when I visited, it felt like home,” Arquette said. “The coaching staff there, I believe in them, I trust them and Oregon State is a powerhouse and I wanted to join that rich tradition and growing tradition.”

In the changing landscape of college athletics, neither the Huskies nor the Beavers are a part of the Pac-12 in baseball next season. Washington is a full-time member of the Big Ten Conference, while Oregon State remains in the Pac-12 in football, but is an affiliate member of the West Coast Conference in some sports and will play an independent schedule without a conference affiliation in baseball.

Conference realignment had no bearing on Arquette’s decision to leave Washington.

“Like I said, I was planning to stay until our head coach left,” Arquette said. “I wanted to grind it out with the boys, but things happen.”

The Beavers have made six College World Series appearances since 2005 and won three NCAA championships, with the last coming in 2018.

Arquette, who played in an NCAA regional this past season with the Huskies, is listed as the 27th overall draft prospect in 2025 on a list put out by ESPN, which includes Arkansas shortstop and Baldwin alum Wehiwa Aloy at No. 10.

The draft is 11 months away. Arquette says he has other things to focus on first.

“This past year was a really good one for me, just playing every game and playing healthy, staying on the field, and putting my head down and keep working at my craft,” Arquette said. “I’m going to do the same thing this year and the draft is a bonus. I think for me it’s all about working hard, competing and just now with my Oregon State brothers trying to make a run to Omaha. That’s the main thing for me. I want to win and the draft is too far right now to look ahead at.”