No. 9 Stanford baseball (37-14, 18-9 Pac-12) hits the road to face Washington state (24-26,10-17) in a three-game series beginning this Thursday at 6 p.m. This series will finish out the regular season, which will be the last for head coach Mark Marquess.

In honor of Marquess’ career, Stanford baseball has retired the number 9, the first time ever that a number has been retired in the program. With a successful season thus far, Marquess became one of five NCAA coaches to reach 1,600 career wins, and one of only three to do so at one school.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal will look to continue their five-series win streak, a record the team holds for the first time since 2008. Last Wednesday, the team capped a perfect season against midweek competition and then followed it with a perfect series at home against Washington. 

Stanford has won six straight series against the Cougars, and will look to rely on its bullpen again, considering its record of 26-0 this year when leading after six innings. Regardless of how the series turns out, Stanford will finish higher than fourth in the Pac-12, its best finish since the conference expansion.

Sophomore lefty Kris Bubic will be the starting pitcher for the series opener. Although Bubic has never faced Washington State, he has a strong ERA of 3.35 this season. The pitcher for Friday has not yet been assigned, but Saturday’s pitcher, senior Chris Castellanos, has a 3.38 ERA against Washington State in four appearances.

Stanford will look to junior Matt Winaker, who has played in 119 consecutive games and has reached base in 22 straight, junior Quinn Brodey, who has started 115 straight games, and sophomore Brandon Wulff and junior Jesse Kuet, each of whom have seven-game hit streaks.

The series begins this Thursday at 6 p.m., will continue Friday at 4 p.m. and finish up on Saturday at 1 p.m. The series will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks.

Contact Ariana Rollins at arianar ‘at’ stanford.edu.