Stanford Baseball Travels to Arizona for Tough Four-Game Opening Weekend

After months of waiting, it is finally time for college baseball season! This weekend, there will be an abundance of games from Friday through Sunday to kick the 2026 college baseball season off.

The Cardinal will play a four-game opening schedule from Arizona, beginning with play against Arizona on Friday, followed by Michigan on Saturday, Oregon State on Sunday, and wrapping up with Nebraska on Monday. The first three games will be streamed on Flo College from Surprise, AZ, while the game against Nebraska will be on MLB.com from Scottsdale, AZ.

Arizona is coming off of an immensely successful season that resulted in a Big 12 championship and an Omaha appearance. The Wildcats did a phenomenal job of pitching in 2025, and are looking to run it back in 2026.

However, Arizona lost a number of members of their roster, and just days before the opening game against Stanford, lost the best reliever in the country, Tony Pluta, to a UCL injury. That leaves just one preseason Big 12 player on the roster in starting pitcher Owen Kramkowski. He'll be getting the Openign Day nod against Stanford.

Michigan is coming off of an interesting 2025 campaign that began with a win over No. 2 Virginia, but they finished at 33-23, 10 games back of UCLA. After a decent season, Tate Carey returns for his sophomore year, and is the preseason pick to win Big Ten pitcher of the year after posting a 3.79 ERA in 18 games (7 starts) last year.

In addition, Michigan returns both Gavin DeVooght, Max DeBiec, and brings in Shane Brinham, who is expected to be an impact freshman. The Wolverines elite pitching could certainly prevent the Cardinal from producing much offense on Saturday.

Oregon State is one of the premier programs in college baseball, and despite losing their conference affiliation for 2025, was still was able to dominate as an independent.

They hosted a regional in 2025, won, and made their way to Omaha before falling just short, finishing in fifth place. In 2026, they return star pitcher Dax Whitney, who is a preseason All-American. The Beavers return tons of pitching, but like the other programs, could use an extra bat or two to put them in a better spot to compete with the top programs in college baseball.

Nebraska are now the holders of the Big Ten title after their Cinderella run in 2025 to win it over UCLA. While the Cornhuskers aren’t necessarily a top program in the conference, the Big Ten is always wide open, and Nebraska may be able to compete near the top behind UCLA. Last year they finished with a 33-29 record and still managed to take down the Bruins (48-18).

The Cornhuskers have a solid mix of pitching and hitting, proving that their consistency on both sides of the ball could be intriguing for this weekend.

This is going to be a tough weekend for the Cardinal, with four solid programs that they're going up against. It may be imperative that they take home a win or two in the first games, so that they leave the weekend with something to build upon.

In game one, we are going to pick Stanford to win 3-2. Without Pluta, the Wildcats are going to be at a slight disadvantage, and it will take time for Arizona to get things going. Stanford pounces on them to earn the upset win.

In game two, we are going to pick Stanford again. With Aidan Kennan on the mound Saturday, the hope here is that he'll be able to shut down Michigan enough to get the Cardinal their second win of the season.

Game three will be a loss for Stanford against Oregon State, 6-0. The Beavers’s incredible pitching and overall talent is going to be too much for the Cardinal on Sunday. Finally on Monday, Stanford is going to barely take down Nebraska 6-4. The key in this one will the the Stanford bats coming alive a bit.

It’s going to be a tough weekend for Stanford, but one that possibly could end great. Above are the optimistic picks for the weekend, going 3-1. This weekend could just as easily turn into one where they're shut out, however, but with it being spring, hope is in the air.

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