Even Head Coach Mark Marquess, who is in his 39th year at the helm of Stanford’s baseball team, had never seen anything like the roster composition of this year’s squad entering the season. On one side of the ball, the Cardinal (9-8) returned all of their starting pitchers from last season and 90 percent of their total innings pitched. But they also lost six of their starting position players, the only returners being sophomore middle infielder Tommy Edman, junior shortstop Drew Jackson and junior outfielder Zach Hoffpauir.

It couldn’t have helped that two of those three returners got hurt a few weeks into the season — Hoffpauir has been out since Stanford’s opening series against Indiana, and Jackson suffered an injury at Cal State Fullerton on the second weekend of the season. All of that has opened up plenty of opportunities for the Cardinal freshmen, which Perfect Game ranked as the 11^th best class in the nation.

Freshman first baseman Matt Winaker has been the guy at the plate for Stanford thus far. Through the team’s first 17 games, he’s hitting .377/.465/.574. Edman, whose walk-off homer in last year’s NCAA regional sent the Cardinal on to Vanderbilt for the supers, has also been heating up of late and has his season average just under .280.

Sophomore ace Cal Quantrill still leads the Stanford pitching staff on Friday nights, and has picked up where he left off last season. He’s 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA (4 ER over 18.2 IP) in his first three starts. Quantrill, the son of former major-league reliever Phil Quantrill, perfected his slider in summer ball in North Carolina, and also added a fourth pitch — a curveball.

Stanford has faced four top-30 opponents thus far this season, and given the injuries to some key position players and the youth of its starting lineup, the team should certainly be happy with its 9-8 start.