The No. 22 Stanford baseball team welcomes No. 15 Cal this weekend for a very big conference series.

The Cardinal (18-13, 7-5 Pac-10) has won five in a row and it re-entered the national rankings this week after last we

ekend’s sweep at Oregon State. The Cardinal has had an up-and-down season and had lost five games in a row prior to the current win-streak.

Stanford has not played since last weekend’s series because a midweek game with Santa Clara was twice rained out.

This series is especially important for Stanford because it currently sits in a tie for third place in the Pac-10, just a game behind the Bears (22-11, 8-4) for second in the conference.

During its recent surge, the Cardinal has enjoyed a potent offensive attack led by junior first baseman Jonathan Kaskow.

Kaskow, the reigning Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Week, enters the weekend leading the Cardinal with a .455 batting average. He has been on absolute tear of late, with four consecutive multi-hit games, going 10-16 overall in Stanford’s last four games.

Junior shortstop Jake Schlander understands the importance of having a consistent hitter like Kaskow anchoring the Cardinal lineup every day.

“It is great to have a steady presence in the middle of the lineup. He has really been doing a great job ever since he’s had the chance to play every day,” Schlander said.

Although he is a switch-hitter, earlier in the season Kaskow wasn’t starting every game, especially against left-handed pitchers. Recently, however, head coach Mark Marquess has had no choice but to play Kaskow every day.

Another key to Stanford’s improved play has been better outings from its starting pitchers. The Cardinal has announced a rotation of sophomore lefty Brett Mooneyham (1-4, 6.69) on Friday, sophomore righty Jordan Pries (3-1, 3.14) on Saturday and sophomore righty Brian Busick (4-1, 3.13) on Sunday for this weekend’s series. Pries and Busick have been the Cardinal’s two best and most consistent pitchers all season, while Mooneyham has begun to pitch somewhat better as the season has progressed. The Cardinal hopes he will eventually begin to throw more strikes – he has walked 43 batters in 39 innings – and turn into the top recruit that he was out of high school.

Schlander credits both the pitchers’ command and the batters’ new approaches at the plate for the team’s recent hot streak.

“We’ve been playing a lot better and with a lot more intensity of late,” Schlander said. “We’ve been a lot more aggressive and the pitchers have stepped up and followed suit. They’ve been throwing a lot more strikes.”

Stanford will have to play the rest of the season without junior outfielder Kellen Kiilsgaard, who will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the rest of the season. Kiilsgaard was a major part of last year’s lineup, but he only started eight games this season.

Cal comes into the weekend equally as hot as the Cardinal, having won 11 of its last 12 games.

One of those wins came against the Cardinal, a nonconference, midweek 2-0 win on April 5. Senior Chris Petrini got the win for the Bears, going seven shutout innings. Despite his good outing, Petrini is not scheduled to be in the rotation this weekend. Cal is expected to send sophomore righty Erik Johnson (5-2, 3.63) to the mound Friday, freshman lefty Justin Jones (8-2, 2.62) to the hill Saturday and sophomore righty Dixon Anderson (3-1, 3.26) on Sunday.

Offensively Cal is led by junior outfielder/first baseman Mark Canha, who is hitting .400 with six homers on the season.

Although playing Cal always brings out a lot of emotions for Stanford players, Schlander says the team has been downplaying the showdown with its archrival.

“I wouldn’t say [Cal] means more. Every Pac-10 game is big. This is especially big because they are second in the conference, and we are third,” Schlander said. “It’s a big series for us. All the Pac-10 games are big for us from here on out.”

The series begins tonight at Sunken Diamond at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday’s games will take place at 1 p.m.