The Stanford baseball team opened the 2011 season the right way this weekend, taking two out of three games from Rice down in Houston.

The Cardinal (2-1), ranked No. 13 to start the season by Baseball America, captured the series over the No. 18 Owls (1-2) with a 5-3 win on Friday, a 7-1 loss on Saturday and a 6-2 victory on Sunday.

The weekend was highlighted by excellent pitching—especially from the Cardinal bullpen—and the impressive power of some new starters in the Stanford lineup.

Sophomore righthander Mark Appel opened up the series on the mound in his first career Friday start and did not have an easy task in front of him. The lineup Appel had to face featured third baseman Anthony Rendon, last year’s National Player of the Year, who had a .394 batting average and 26 home runs in the 2010 season.

However, Appel did well to shut down the Owls’ potent lineup, pitching five and two-thirds innings while giving up only two runs and holding Rendon to a 0-for-4 night at the plate.

Down 2-1 after six innings, the Cardinal turned its offense on, sneaking around the base paths to score on an error and then on a double play to take a 3-2 lead.

The decisive blow in Friday’s contest came in the top half of the next inning though, when sophomore first baseman Justin Ringo clubbed an inside fastball high into the night sky and over the right field fence for a two-run home run.

Junior lefthander Scott Snodgress came in and closed the game out for the Cardinal, allowing one run to score on a wild pitch before settling down and getting the final strikeout and the win.

The game was especially impressive for Appel, who was forced to be the Friday starter after two junior pitchers—Brett Mooneyham and Jordan Pries—were scratched from the lineup with injuries.

The Cardinal was unable to follow up the solid performance on Friday night with a comparable effort on Saturday though, as the team lacked any timely hitting in a 7-1 loss.

Stanford’s offense was all but shut down in a nice effort from Owl starter Matthew Reckling, who threw six shutout innings and gave up only four hits.

Reckling’s performance stood in contrast to Stanford’s junior starter Chris Reed, who struggled with command and gave up four runs in the bottom of the second and three runs in the bottom of the third. However, junior A.J. Talt had a stellar performance out of the bullpen, sidearming his way through three and one-third innings without giving up a hit or a run.

The only offensive highlight of the day was when freshman right fielder Austin Wilson blasted a solo shot in the top of the seventh inning that rocketed over 350 feet to clear the left field fence.

With the series tied 1-1 heading into Sunday’s contest, the Cardinal called on sophomore righty Dean McArdle to bring the series home.

McArdle, who went 5-0 last season, gritted out five tough innings, giving up only one run after a bases-loaded, no-out situation in the top of the first inning.

From then on, the story of the game was left up to the Cardinal freshmen. Stanford took the lead and never gave it up after rookie first baseman Brian Ragira ripped an RBI triple into the right field gap in the fourth inning, which was promptly followed by a Wilson single that scored another run to make the lead 3-1.

McArdle then handed the ball to fellow righthander Danny Sandbrink, who closed out with four innings of solid pitching, only giving up one run of his own.

Sandbrink also got a little help from the youngsters when freshman second baseman Lonnie Kauppila hit a solo shot that barely cleared the left field wall in the seventh inning, Wilson had another RBI single, and Kauppila brought another run home on a fielder’s choice to notch the 6-2 final tally.

The two wins stretched the Cardinal’s all-time record against Rice to 9-3, and set Stanford off on the right foot for a tough season where it will face off against eight of the top 25 teams in the nation.

The Cardinal will return to the Farm to host California in its home opener at Sunken Diamond today at 5:30 p.m. before heading to Vanderbilt for a three-game series starting Friday night.