David Esquer puts CWS elimination into perspective, commends Stanford players

Stanford head coach David Esquer finished his sixth season leading his alma mater Monday at the Men’s College World Series as his team lost to Tennessee. But despite the disappointing ending, Esquer couldn’t help but look positively on his group.

“Just so proud and just so blessed to have coached this team,” Esquer said. “We’ll have a number of players that will move on, whether it’s seniors or juniors who will get drafted and won’t return to the program. Boy, what a mark they left on our program. Been to the World Series for three straight years. Our program as a whole, we’ve hosted a Regional for six straight years. Been to four straight Super Regionals. We’ve got some guys who have some history, some track record. They’ve left our program a better place than they found it.”

The 2023 Stanford program finished 44-20 on the season. The Cardinal were 23-7 in conference play to win the Pac-12 regular season title.

They were then the No. 8 national seed, winning their Regional and Super Regional to make a third consecutive Men’s College World Series.

“I usually challenge them when we go to an opposing park, whether it’s their dugout or locker room, I always challenge them to leave it better than we found it,” Esquer said. “They took it to heart as far as what they did for our program. So I’ve got nothing but pride. It’s my alma mater. It’s my school. It’s a place where I played and won a national title. And I’m just even more satisfied at the brotherhood they’ve created amongst each other. You can see the emotion at the end of the day that it’s hard to say goodbye. And I always tell them we’re going to say farewell, we’re not going to say goodbye. But even that’s hard. And you want to let them experience that pain a little bit because of just how deeply they feel for each other.”

Stanford were led by numerous award winners throughout the season. Junior Alberto Rios won the Pac-12 Player of the Year award, senior Quinn Mathews won the Pac-12 Player of the Year award, Malcolm Moore won the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year award and Tommy Troy won the Pac-12 batting title.

“I had the player of the year of the conference,” Esquer said. “I had the pitcher of the year of the conference for the third straight year. We won the league by five games, which no one usually does in our league. There’s nothing that could tarnish our season. There’s nothing. You could say you came here and lost in two straight — not going to do it. It’s not going to make me feel less than this was a special year for this group.”

David Esquer hopes players remain close

David Esquer himself is a Stanford alum, having played for legendary head coach Mark Marquess from 1984–1987. He was the starting shortstop on the 1987 College World Series winning team.

He models his program’s relationship building and bonds on that team and the way they have stayed friends over the years.

“You see the emotions the relationships they build with each other and that was my number one goal,” Esquer said. “When we won a title in ’87 — and I’ve got a hundred texts from my teammates in ’87 right now and throughout the tournament — those guys are my brothers. That’s my family. My hope was to deliver the same experience that I had that they would be able to feel for their teammates the same way I felt for mine. And then I would take my chances on winning as many baseball games as possible if I could develop that in the locker room. We have and it’s been pretty special for a number of years now that the players who remain in our program have to take that baton and just carry it.”