It’s been tough going, but spirits still high
Mark Marquess admits it has been his most challenging season as Stanford’s baseball coach. And he has been at this for 39 years.
“I’ve never seen this many injuries,” he said.
The depleted Cardinal enter this weekend’s series at USC with the Pac- 12’ s worst record ( 6- 15). They’re 20- 26 overall, which means it could be Stanford’s worst team in more than a half- century. The 1964 team went 20- 24, including 4- 16 in the conference. This has been the worst conference season since 1978 ( 6- 12).
Yet the team’s morale has been excellent, according to Marquess. “When you’re struggling, you’re looking to see: Are they not working hard in practice?” he said. “It’s been one of my better teams in that regard. It may be because they’re so young.”
What looked like a very promising season took huge hits early when, in quick order, starting pitchers Marc Brakeman, Cal Quantrill and John Hochstatter went out with arm injuries. Quantrill, expected to be the Friday starter, and Hochstatter both underwent Tommy John surgery — in which an elbow ligament is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body — and were lost for the season. Brakeman missed 24 games before returning.
There were more injuries, many more. Third baseman Mikey Diekroeger fractured a bone in his left shoulder while diving to field a relay throw in mid- April. The team’s leading hitter was done for the season.
Outfielder Zach Hoffpauir, the team’s most dangerous hitter, missed 23 games with a wrist injury before coming back April 2. He returned shortly after shortstop Drew Jackson came back from a 17- game absence with a hand injury. Designated hitter Austin Barr has been out since April 3 with a hernia injury.
Stanford lost its first nine conference games. At one point, against powerful Arizona State, Marquess had freshmen playing catcher, first base, shortstop and third.
Last year’s team had inexperienced starting pitching but a good offense and reached the NCAA Super Regionals. Then six of those position players signed pro contracts. This year, it appeared the Cardinal had plenty of pitching but a weak offense. Then the pitching imploded.
Not all of Stanford’s problems can be blamed on the rash of injuries. The hitting has been even worse than expected, ninth in the league (. 254). Stanford has the fewest runs ( 204) and the worst onbase percentage (. 333), to go with the next- to- worst team ERA ( 4.75). The fielding has been shaky.
The good news for Quantrill and Hochstatter is that, according to Marquess, “with Tommy John, you’re probably going to come back better than you were before.” The bad news is that Quantrill probably won’t be back until at least mid- March next season and Hochstatter, who’s a senior this year, not until April or May.
Next year’s freshman class, led by pitchers Tristan Beck and Kris Bubic ( Mitty- San Jose), could help put Stanford back on track.
Marquess, 68, said that though he’s focused on getting this year’s team better, he’s excited about prospects for next season.
“You’ll know when you don’t want to do it anymore,” he said. “You’ll know when you don’t want to go out to practice and you don’t want to recruit. Or the losses and the disappointment are so bad you can’t sleep. That hasn’t happened.”