Stanford baseball’s season (28-26, 13-17 ACC) came to an end last Wednesday after an 11-2 loss to Miami (39-20, 16-14 ACC) in the second round of the ACC Championship tournament.
The Cardinal’s second season in the ACC was marked by inconsistency. Stanford never won or lost more than three consecutive conference games, stringing together several 2-1 and 1-2 ACC series throughout the spring while struggling to establish itself in one of college baseball’s deepest conferences.
Miami eliminated Stanford from the ACC tournament behind an offensive outburst that limited the Cardinal to just two runs. Stanford’s scoring came from a home run by freshman first baseman Teddy Tokheim and an RBI from sophomore third baseman JJ Moran.
Stanford’s conference season got off to a difficult start with a sweep at the hands of Wake Forest (39-21, 16-14 ACC) in early March. While the Cardinal showed flashes of momentum throughout the season, including a statement sweep of Florida State (40-19, 19-11 ACC) in late April, they were unable to sustain that success. A sweep by Notre Dame (31-22, 13-17 ACC) in early May largely erased the gains made during Stanford’s strongest stretch of conference play.
Despite the team’s struggles, several young players emerged as foundational pieces for the program. Tokheim led the Cardinal with 17 home runs, finishing one shy of the freshman program record set by Braden Montgomery in 2022.
Tokheim earned All-ACC Second Team and ACC All-Freshman Team honors. He became just the second Stanford player to earn All-ACC recognition since the program joined the conference and the second Cardinal freshman to be named to the All-Freshman Team, following sophomore outfielder Tatum Marsh’s selection last season.
Sophomore first baseman Rintaro Sasaki also provided a significant offensive boost, finishing the year with 16 home runs. Through two seasons, Sasaki has now hit 23 career home runs for the Cardinal.
Although Stanford finished below .500 in conference play, the emergence of players such as Tokheim and Sasaki offers optimism for a program that spent much of its second ACC season competing with some of the nation’s top teams — over half of which were selected for this year’s NCAA tournament. With much of its offensive production returning, the Cardinal will look to build on the lessons learned from its first year in the conference heading into 2026.