SURPRISE, Ariz. – Ethan Hott was back in his home state, Arizona, to compete with Stanford in the College Baseball Series at Surprise Stadium.
Stanford traveled over 700 miles to play in the series, but one player was back home. Senior outfielder Ethan Hott grew up in Paradise Valley and attended Chaparral High School, the same school Arizona State University head football coach Kenny Dillingham attended.
“It’s awesome,” Hott said. “My friends and whole family are here. It’s great.”
Stanford is currently 1-2, following a walk-off loss to Oregon State. On Friday, they beat No. 24 Arizona 10-7, and on Saturday fell just short to Michigan 6-7.
Hott had a huge impact against Michigan.
He hit a triple to right center, allowing two of his teammates to tighten the deficit to 5-7.
“It only takes one swing,” Hott said.
Hott also caught multiple flyouts over the past two games.
“I like to tell my pitchers, if I’m in the outfield and the ball comes my way, they don’t even have to turn around,” Hott said.
Hott isn’t new to making big plays.
As a junior, he appeared in 39 games, started 35, batted .342 with 19 runs scored, with eight doubles, a triple, three home runs, and 25 RBIs. His .342 put him ranked second on his team. Which is the same batting average the legend Babe Ruth finished after 22 seasons in the MLB.
Hott compiled 14 multi-hit and six multi-RBI games. His first two career home runs were back-to-back against No. 4 North Carolina in March. 8-9, 2025. He was honored with the ACC All-American Team and the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District.
Arizona Native
While Captain his senior year, he led his squad to a semifinal state appearance and the 6A Desert Valley Region runner-up. In the same season, he scored the second-most runs in the 6A conference (46) and third-most stolen bases in the 6A conference, 22. While maintaining a .592 on-base percentage.
Hott led his team in runs (46), hits (38), walks (33), and OPS (1.281) while finishing second in slugging (.688), batting average (.422), and home runs (5).
His love of baseball goes further than just playing.
He founded the Arizona branch of Angels At Bat, a non-profit organization that sends baseball equipment to kids in Africa.
Bigger than an athlete
Even in the hard times, Hott embraces his Judaism every day.
He was named a Blue Square Athlete Ambassador.
He proudly wears his Star of David and fights against antisemitism. On Instagram and at Stanford, Hott speaks proudly and loudly about Judaism.
Hott has mentioned in the past that on all of his teams he has played on, including Stanford, he has always been the only Jewish athlete. But that does not stop him from playing the sport he loves.
He has stated before that he wakes up every day to be a better version of himself than he was the day before.
