Season Begins in Surprise

LEADING OFF

• Stanford will honor legendary head coach Mark Marquess, who passed away on January 30, 2026, throughout the 2026 season with "9" jersey patches, helmet stickers and an outfield wall decal at Sunken Diamond ... was picked to finish 10th in the ACC standings according to the league’s coaches after finishing 13th a year ago ... has missed the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons, but has not gone more than two straight years without reaching the postseason since a 13-season stretch from 1968-1980 ... has made 19 College World Series appearances, including having reached Omaha in three of the last five seasons ... 19 appearances are ninth-most in the nation ... finished the 2025 season with a 27-25 overall record and an 11-19 conference mark ... hit .297 as a team with 329 runs scored (6.33 per game), 90 doubles, 10 triples and 64 home runs a year ago ... homered in all but 16 games last season ... pitched to a 6.42 ERA with 430 strikeouts in 451 1/3 innings ... averaged 8.57 strikeouts per nine innings
• Charlie Bates carries over a seven-game hitting streak into the 2026 season (.321, 9-for-28, 6 R, 2B, HR, RBI) ... listed as the preseason No. 19 shortstop in the nation according to D1Baseball and No. 31 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Sophomores list
• Philip Cheong is No. 98 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Freshmen list
• Nick Dugan is listed as the preseason No. 108 starting pitcher in the nation according to D1Baseball and No. 46 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Seniors list
• Ethan Hott hit safely in his final two games of the 2025 season (.429, 3-for-7, 2B) and will look to extend his streak into the 2026 campaign
• Aidan Keenan is listed as the preseason No. 120 starting pitcher in the nation according to D1Baseball
• Brock Ketelsen is listed on the Baseball America Preseason Freshman of the Year watch list and No. 18 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Freshmen list
• Luke Lavin reached in his final six games of the 2025 season and will look to extend his streak into the 2026 campaign
• Cort MacDonald hit safely in his final two games of the 2025 season (.250, 2-for-8, R) and will look to extend his streak into the 2026 campaign ... has reached in three straight dating back to 2025
• Tatum Marsh carries over a 10-game hitting streak into the 2026 season (.429, 18-for-42, 13 R, 4 2B, 2 RBIs) ... listed as the preseason No. 40 outfielder in the nation according to D1Baseball
• Jimmy Nati carries over a nine-game hitting streak into the 2026 season (.333, 13-for-39, 7 R, 2B, 6 HR, 14 RBIs) ... NCBWA Preseason All-America second team, listed as the preseason No. 10 second baseman in the nation according to D1Baseball and No. 100 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Seniors list
• Brady Reynolds is listed as the preseason No. 100 outfielder in the nation according to D1Baseball
• Rintaro Sasaki is listed as the preseason No. 38 first baseman in the nation according to D1Baseball ... was selected in the first round of the 2025 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks
• Brock Sell is listed on the Baseball America Preseason Freshman of the Year watch list and No. 9 on Perfect Game's Preseason Top 100 Freshmen list

THIS WEEK 

• Stanford will open the 2026 season at the College Baseball Series in Surprise, Ariz.
• The tournament reunites Arizona, Oregon State, and Stanford for the first time since the three programs were in the Pac-12
• The Cardinal will open the season against No. 24 Arizona Friday at 5 p.m., clash with Michigan on Saturday at 5 p.m., and conclude tournament play on Sunday vs. No. 12 Oregon State at 11 a.m.
• All three games from Surprise Stadium will be streamed live on FloCollege and will also be broadcast live on KZSU 90.1 FM
• Mike Ferrin and David Aardsma will have the broadcast call for all three games in Surprise

UP NEXT 

• After the three games in Surprise, Stanford will make the short trip to Scottsdale, Ariz. for a single game vs. Nebraska on Monday at noon
• The game with Nebraska will be played at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick and will come on the back end of the MLB Desert Invitational this weekend

OPENING WEEKEND NOTES 

• Including a 13-1 victory last year, Stanford is 50-16-1 overall on Opening Day since 1959 and has won six of its last 10 games to open a season
• Stanford opened the 2025 season against Cal State Fullerton for the fourth straight season and 12th time since 2000 (13th time overall) ... with a four-game sweep last year, Stanford is now 8-4 in the 12 season-opening series (24-13 overall record) since 2000
• The Cardinal has played 28 opening weekend series of three-or-more games since 1959 and is 19-9 in those series ... Stanford has compiled a 58-28 record over the 86 games in those sets

2025 SEASON IN REVIEW

• Beginning its tenure in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford finished the 2025 season with a 27-25 overall record and an 11-19 conference mark
• The Cardinal navigated what proved to be a hot-and-cold campaign, beginning the season 9-0 for the first time since opening the 2018 campaign at 10-0 ... Stanford’s torrid start continued into ACC play as the Cardinal took two-of-three at No. 4 North Carolina before sweeping Duke to improve to 15-3 through 18 contests and earn a No. 14 national ranking according to D1Baseball
• Experiencing a drastic shift in momentum, the Cardinal suffered a sweep at the hands of California in ACC play ... those three losses proved to be the start of an 11-game conference skid as the Cardinal battled preseason No. 2 Virginia, No. 25 Georgia Tech and No. 4 Clemson along the way ... series losses to Notre Dame and Wake Forest followed from there, but the Cardinal rebounded to take two-of-three at Boston College and No. 13 NC State to close out the conference slate
• Stanford was swept in four series of three-or-more games last year for just the third time in program history (also swept four times in 1980 and 2015)
• The Cardinal's final victory at NC State was No. 800 in Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer’s illustrious head coaching career
• The Cardinal hit .297 as a team with 329 runs scored, 90 doubles, 10 triples and 64 home runs ... averaged 6.33 runs per game
• Stanford compiled a string of 16 straight games with a home run from February 16 to March 16 (29 home runs over the span) - the longest streak of games with a homer since belting 52 homers in an 18-game span from May 1 - June 3, 2022 ... Stanford homered in all but 16 games last season
• The Cardinal pitched to a 6.42 ERA with 430 strikeouts in 451 1/3 innings ... averaged 8.57 strikeouts per nine innings
• Trevor Haskins was the lone Cardinal drafted in the 2025 MLB Draft, selected in the 15th round by the St. Louis Cardinals
• Following a standout freshman campaign, Tatum Marsh was named Freshman All-America second team according to Baseball America, NCBWA and Perfect Game

OUR AUSSIE IS A PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN

• Jimmy Nati was tabbed a Preseason All-American according to National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, landing on the publication’s second team
• Stanford's starting second baseman a year ago, Nati was named a finalist for the ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove at the conclusion of the season
• Nati started all 52 games for the Cardinal last year, posted a .980 fielding percentage and batted .300 with 45 runs scored, nine doubles, a team-best 16 home runs and a team-leading 50 RBIs while slugging a team-best .581 with a .367 on-base percentage

PRESEASON FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR WATCH LIST

• Freshmen Brock Ketelsen and Brock Sell have been listed on Baseball America’s Preseason Freshman of the Year watch list
• Ketelsen, the 2025 West Coast League Top Prospect, is a two-way player who will see action as a left-handed pitcher and outfielder
• Sell, ranked 55th on Baseball America’s Top 500 draft prospects entering last year’s draft, is a versatile player who can play all across the diamond
• This season marks the first that Baseball America has officially named preseason collegiate national award winners and preseason award watch lists
• According to the publication, the Freshman of the Year race is defined less by résumé and more by immediate impact, projection and how quickly a player asserts himself at the college level ... the players listed represent early standouts entering their first Division I seasons, offering a snapshot of freshmen positioned to make an immediate mark while also carrying long-term upside ... amateur track record served as the primary evaluation factor for preseason inclusion, with tools, role opportunity and feedback from professional evaluators also considered
• Mississippi State lefthander Jack Bauer was named Baseball America Preseason Freshman of the Year

CARDINAL TABBED 10TH IN PRESEASON POLL

• Preparing for its second season in the ACC, Stanford was picked to finish 10th in the conference standings according to the league’s 16 head coaches
• The Cardinal, which has made a trip to the College World Series in three of the last five seasons, is looking for a bounce-back year after missing the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons ... has not gone more than two straight years without reaching the postseason since a 13-season stretch from 1968-1980
• Georgia Tech was selected as the 2026 Atlantic Coast Conference Baseball preseason favorite, collecting seven of the possible 16 first-place votes to garner 237 total points
• Just one point separated Georgia Tech and second-place finisher North Carolina, who logged 236 points and six first-place votes
• Also earning first place votes were Florida State (one) and Clemson (two)
• The Seminoles finished third in the poll, logging 221 points, while Louisville, who represented the ACC in the 2025 Men’s College World Series, finished fourth with 196 points
• Clemson’s two first-place votes propelled them to a fifth-place projection, totaling 185 points
• NC State was slotted sixth in the coaches’ poll, with 169 points, just ahead of Virginia, who was projected to finish seventh with 165 points
• With 159 points, Miami was picked to finish eighth, while Wake Forest was projected to finish ninth with 145 points and Stanford 10th with 99 points
• Stanford was followed by Virginia Tech (89), Notre Dame (87), Duke (67), Pitt (45), California (41) and Boston College (35)
• The ACC has placed at least one team in each of the last 19 College World Series, including Louisville in 2025, and at least six teams in each of the last 21 NCAA tournaments
• Eight ACC baseball teams began the season in the D1Baseball Preseason Top 25, led by Georgia Tech at No. 4 ... the Jackets were followed by No. 8 Louisville, No. 11 North Carolina, No. 16 Florida State, No. 17 NC State, No. 19 Clemson, No. 21 Wake Forest and No. 22 Miami

CALIFORNIA KINGS 

• Stanford is the winningest Division I program in California since the 2017 season, compiling 317 victories
• UC Santa Barbara has won 309 games since 2017, followed by UCLA (305), UC Irvine (301) and Sacramento State (271)

ACC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

• The 2026 ACC Baseball Championship will be held Tuesday, May 19, through Sunday, May 24, at Truist Field in Charlotte, N.C.
• ACC Network will be on hand for the first five days of the tournament with ESPN2 set to carry Sunday’s championship game
• All 16 teams in the ACC will compete in a single-elimination championship
• The top four seeds in the championship will be based off the performance in the regular season and will receive a double-bye into the quarterfinal round, which is scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday ... seeds five through eight will earn a bye into Wednesday’s second round ... seeds 9-16 will begin play with four first-round games on Tuesday
• The single-elimination championship format will feature four games per day on Tuesday (first round) and Wednesday (second round) ... two quarterfinal games will take place on both Thursday and Friday, while Saturday will host the two semifinal contests ... Sunday will host the championship game

NO PLACE LIKE HOME

• Often considered one of the most beautiful college baseball facilities in the country, Klein Field at Sunken Diamond is the home to Stanford baseball
• The “Sunken Diamond” name comes from the excavation to provide fill for the earthen berm within which Stanford Stadium was built in 1921, leaving a large, sunken field
• The fixed seating capacity at Sunken Diamond is 2,113 ... with the addition of ADA seating and general admission lawn seating, the total capacity of the facility is 4,000
• The original dimensions were 360 feet to left field, 350 to right field, and 500 feet to center field ... in 1978, a new seven-foot high fence was installed, bringing the dimensions to the current 335 to both left and right fields, and 400 to center field ... the outfield fence was increased to 10 feet in 1995
• Sunken Diamond features ample foul ground from first to third base, with home plate sitting approximately 70 feet from the backstop

HOME OF CHAMPIONS

• Stanford is the all-time leader with 137 NCAA team championships (70 men, 67 women), and 173 national championships overall
• The Cardinal owns the most recognizable streak in college athletics, having won at least one NCAA team title during each of the last 49 seasons, dating back to the 1976-77 campaign
• The Cardinal has also produced 565 NCAA individual champions and 658 overall
• Stanford has won the Learfield Directors’ Cup in 26 of the possible 31 seasons, including a 25-year streak from 1995-2019