It’s time for College Baseball, and the Stanford Cardinal are going to be trying to compete in a stacked ACC conference that sent 9 teams to Regionals, 5 to Super Regionals, and 1 – the Louisville Cardinals – to the College World Series. Unfortunately, the Stanford Cardinal were not any of those teams. Just a quick recap of last season, Stanford had a rough year transitioning into the new conference, going 27-25 with a conference record of 11-19. The pitching mostly struggled, with the Cardinal
losing so many big talents to the MLB Draft over the last few years like Quinn Mathews, Tommy Troy, Malcom Moore. They simply didn't have the firepower to dominate anymore, and even lost 11 games in a row at one point. In 2025, all 16 teams in the conference were invited to the conference tournament, but Stanford got knocked out right away, losing 7-4 to Virginia Tech.
There were some high points; they swept Duke in a 3-game series in March, they beat the powerful North Carolina 7-0 behind Joey Volchko, who threw 5+ scoreless innings, and had a few key performers who had big seasons including Tatum Marsh, who hit .377 and Trevor Haskins, who smashed 14 homers with 42 RBIs. Unfortunately, Haskins won’t be back after getting drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals nor will Volchko.
Entering 2026, the schedule is going to be a monster again, with 29 games against 2025 NCAA Tournament teams, and it starts out really tough with this weekend in the College Baseball Series in Surprise, where they’ll face Arizona, Michigan and Oregon State. But things calm down after that, and Stanford will have a shot to get off to a hot start. Infielder and consistent .300 hitter Jimmy Nati is back for his Senior year, providing a steady veteran presence in the heart of the order. Thent here’s first baseman Rintaro Sasaki, who has massive power potential and could have his breakout season this year. But one of their best hitters, Ethan Hott, is back as well. He hit ..342 last season, but doesn’t bring a ton of power with just 3 homers; in fact, the team in general doesn’t hit a ton of home runs; with the only returning player with double digit homers last year being Nati, who crushed 16. Unfortunately, another long-time Cardinal, Temo Becerra, who was just getting better every season offensively and defensively, entered the transfer portal and he’s off to Texas.
The primary starters last year were Volchko and Matt Scott, both who had ERAs above 6 and they both transferred to Georgia, so Stanford basically has to rebuild their entire rotation for 2026 which might be a disaster or it could turn out to be a positive. Nick Dugan started 8 games last season in a midweek starter/bullpen role, and in 45 total innings of work, he went 6-0 with a 4.8 ERA. He will be Stanford’s primary Friday Night starter this season, with Aidan Keenan lined up for Saturdays. Keenan was strictly a reliever last season, but struck out 43 batters in 37 innings, walking 14. At times, he looked completely dominant and other times, he got hit hard, resulting an overall 5.59 ERA. As for the third starter, several guys are in the mix including some younger guys like Brock Ketelsen and Parker Warner as well as Seniors Trevor Moore and Sam Garewell, just depending on who performs best.
As for the newcomers who have the best chance to help this team bounce back from a disappointing 2025, there are several – but the biggest name by far has to be Brock Sell, a top MLB High School prospect last year, he committed and Stanford. A product of Tokay High in Lodi, Sell is a pure left-handed hitter known for his bat to ball skills and short direct swing that makes him very tough to strike out. He also has some sneaky good power, and hit .484 his Senior year, leading his league in slugging percentage and stolen bases with 34 swipes. He can play multiple positions and has a rocket for an arm, touching 91 from the mound. He should be given a big opportunity this year to contribute and could make a huge difference, although the Cardinal will definitely need better pitching if they want to see more postseason baseball outside of their conference tournament.
The next most promising Freshman is the aforementioned Brock Ketelsen, a two-way player who will be given a shot to pitch and hit. As an outfielder, he was ranked #5 in the entire state of California by Perfect Game and given a 10 out 10. He’s a 6’4”, 202 lb lefty who projects to hit for big power and average, but also has a great arm with electric stuff on the mound. Where he will most help this team is where he’ll end up, but he and Sell are the two biggest incoming freshmen who could take this team to the next level.
Other names to watch out for include Teddy Tokheim, the #1 ranked third baseman in the state of Washington, Rashad Hayes, a powerful third baseman from Oakland who plays excellent defense, and Philip Cheong of Ontario, Canada, ranked as the 2nd best shortstop in the province. But the Cardinal will really need help on the mound, and Freshamn pitchers David Wiser and Colt Peterson may be asked to do just that; as the bullpen lats year was especially bad. This young core will need to bridge the gap quickly and the returning veterans like Hott, Nati, and Marsh need to keep raking and piling up runs, because the schedule gets really tough in March and April, with matchups against Wake Forest, Utah Valley, Clemson, Louisville, and Florida State.
Whether Stanford is better or not this year will all come down to the pitching, and it’s really hard to say for sure. Volchko and Scott are gone, but they weren’t exactly great last year, so the door is open for the new rotation to be better, and with some spectacular incoming talent, there is a chance for massive improvement this year. But if Dugan and Keenan struggle in the rotation and the bullpen isn’t drastically better, we could be in for a similar ride as last year.