COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Reed Marquardt's approach and attitude toward baseball was shaped in large part by his father Brian, who coached him in travel ball from the youth level through his junior year in high school.
 
"He'd always tell us we were baseball players first before we were shortstops, first basemen or catchers," recalled Marquardt, now a senior standout on the baseball team at Saint John's.
 
"That's why he'd have us play four positions every game. You'd go two innings in center field, then two innings at second base and so on. He wanted to give us a sense of what it was like to play all over. So I've always felt I could play any position."
 
That sense of confidence came in handy this offseason when SJU head coach Scott Lieser asked Marquardt if he was willing to move from shortstop – where he'd started the past two seasons – to third base.
 
"He called me over the summer to check in and see how I was doing," Marquardt said. "Then he let me know we were getting some transfers in – (catcher) Mason McCurdy from Creighton and Will Koeppen from St. Thomas. Will had primarily played at shortstop. So (Lieser) wanted to know if I could move to third base. I'd played there in high school so I had experience. I said I'd be more than willing to do it if he thought it would help the team."
 
The switch hasn't seemed to slow Marquardt down a bit. He's started all 38 of his team's games this spring and again ranks among SJU's leaders in hits (42), runs scored (31) and RBI (28).
 
"Reed is the kind of player who will do whatever is needed to help the team be successful," Lieser said. "There wasn't any hesitation at all on his part when we asked him to make the move. Some guys might have gotten a little bucky about it, especially if they'd been doing the job he was doing as the starting shortstop. But he took it all in stride and he hasn't missed a beat.
 
"That's the kind of team-first guy he's always been."
 
Marquardt – a Chisago Lakes High School graduate – now has 126 career hits, making him one of just 40 players to cross the 100-hit plateau during their Johnnie careers. 
 
It's a big milestone to achieve, especially for a self-described stat geek.
 
"The other guys make fun of me because they know they can ask me the stats for anybody on the team and I'll probably know them," he said with a laugh. "I love looking at those kinds of things. 
 
"Getting to 100 hits was really cool, especially because I knew all the guys who did it before me," he continued. "It's a real honor to be on that list with them."
 
The statistical minutia and precise consistency are part of what Marquardt loves most about baseball.
 
"They always say baseball is a game of inches and it's true," he said. "Everything is perfect. The base paths are 90 feet. The mound to the plate is exactly 60 feet, six inches. There's so much specificity there, which makes it really cool. On top of that, you have to have such a select skillset. Yes, you need to be big, strong and fast. But there's that mental side to it too.
 
"It's those details that I think sets it apart from other sports."
 
An attention to granular detail is also what drew Marquardt to a finance major.
 
"Looking at metrics and all that kind of stuff is something I love about baseball, but it's also kind of what goes into being a good financial advisor," Marquardt said of the job he hopes to make his future occupation. "There's a lot of crossover there.
 
"I want to get into financial advising. I think my first job will likely be an operations associate position. But eventually I'd like to work my way up."
 
A faith in his ability to accomplish big goals is another lesson Marquardt said he learned from his father, a football and baseball standout at Bethel in the mid-1980s.
 
"There's a story I tell a lot," Marquardt said. "I think it was at the U-13 or U-14 level. My dad was our coach and he signed us up for a tournament in Blaine. We were all really upset with him because it had all the top teams in our region. We were the lowest team there and we all thought we were going to get killed.
 
"We ended up 10-running two of the teams and winning the whole thing, beating Rogers in the championship game. That's one of the coolest moments I've had in baseball. To be underdogs and end up winning, and to get to share that with my dad, was extra-special. 
 
"He says it's one of the coolest moments he's had as a player or coach too."
 
Family moments have always been important to the Marquardt clan, which also includes mother Kelly, older brother Tanner, 28, and older sister Katy, 23. 
 
That's especially true around the holidays when the family runs a Christmas tree lot just off Highway 8 in Lindstrom.
 
"It's something we've been doing my entire life," Marquardt said. "My parents moved to Lindstrom in 1996. There was a couple that ran the lot in town and my mom and dad drove over there to pick out their tree. My dad started talking to the guy who told him they were looking to get out and it was for sale. They decided to do it. At one point, they had their own farm too. But after having three kids, they decided to focus just on wholesaling instead. 
 
"We have all kinds of Christmas lights hung up around the lot and an old red pickup truck out front people can take pictures on. Candy canes are all over the place. A lot of our family friends tell us we look like we came straight out of a Hallmark movie. But it's really helped get us more involved in the community. Around town, everyone knows us as the tree people, which I think is pretty cool."
 
While both his parents are Bethel graduates, along with an uncle and a number of other relatives, Marquardt said he's succeeded in shifting the family's allegiances to SJU – at least when it comes to baseball.
 
"If it's a Royal/Johnnie football game, my dad is still wearing his Bethel gear," he said with a smile. "But when it's Royals/Johnnies baseball, he's in Saint John's gear now. 
 
"He's cheering for the Johnnies."
 
That's exactly what he'll be doing when third-seeded SJU (13-7 MIAC, 25-14 overall) begins MIAC tournament play against No. 2 seed Macalester (15-5, 26-14) at 7:30 p.m., Thursday (May 7), at CHS Field in St. Paul. Top-seeded Bethel (17-3, 29-8) takes on No. 4 seed Saint Mary's (12-8, 24-14) at 2:30 p.m.
 
The double-elimination competition continues through Saturday with the winner claiming the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs.
 
"Everybody knows pitching and defense win championships," Marquardt said. "Obviously, your offense has to show up because you need to score runs to win. But we've had plenty of faith in our offense all year. It's our pitching and defense that have really come together down the stretch. When we get it all going well, I don't know if anyone in the conference can match what we have. 
 
"We know it will be a challenge, but we believe we're more than capable of coming out on top."