file photo/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona senior shortstop Brad Hassey leaps to avoid a sliding opponent earlier this season against San Diego State at Sancet Field. The baseball team plays host to defending CWS runner-up Stanford this weekend at home.

National runner-up comes to Sancet Field

After relinquishing the top spot in the national rankings earlier this week, the No. 2 Stanford baseball team comes to Tucson today looking to move back into the spot it occupied for the entire season with a series win over the Wildcats.

The Cardinal - which have reached the College World Series title game the last two years - opens a three-game series against Arizona (23-10 overall, 2-4 in Pacific 10 Conference).

Stanford (20-6) opens its Pac-10 schedule after facing opponents such as Florida State, Texas, California and Southern California, games that didn't count in the conference standings. The Cardinal went 12-3 in that span.

Wildcat head coach Andy Lopez hopes his program will someday have a pre-conference schedule that likens to Stanford's.

"They've played a very difficult and challenging schedule. I think that one of the things people who've followed our program in recent years say is that our non-conference schedule is really not as challenging as it should be. I would be the first to agree that's one of thing we need to make changes on," he said.

Outfielder Jason Cooper leads the high-profile Cardinal offense, batting .409 with five home runs and 27 RBIs.

But the Stanford pitching staff leads the conference with a 3.80 ERA.

Staff ace Jeremy Gutherie (6-0, 53 strike outs) will start tonight after yielding 6 earned runs over 7 1/3 innings on March 28. Stanford tied the game with a five-run ninth inning and later went onto win 7-6 against UT. Gutherie got the no-decision.

Lopez, who tinkered with the idea of having sophomore Marc Kaiser become the Friday starter, will not make the anticipated switch and will start sophomore Sean Rierson.

"It was probably my emotions at the time (to move Kaiser) but given a lot of time and serious reason to it, I think it's good to have Marc on a Sunday," Lopez said. "(Kaiser's) a good guy to finish the weekend, Sean deserves to get a couple of more cracks at that thing, and I think that he'll be fine."

Rierson has seemingly struggled of late but earned his first win in four weeks with a seven-run, five-strikeout performance in a 13-9 Wildcat victory over Oregon State on March 28.

"I think coach was really trying to push me and trying to get more out of me. We talked a little bit in Oregon about what I need to do out on the mound and taking one inning at a time. When I get into the middle innings, sometimes I look ahead rather than looking at what I've got to do," he said.

Rierson's 11th start will be against the best pitcher he will pitch against this season.

"I just stay with myself and pitch my own game. Obviously I have to keep the runs down, I've struggled with that a little bit in the past couple of games," Rierson said.

Shortstop Brad Hassey went 6-for-12 with 5 RBIs and a home run in the series against OSU. Hassey raised his average to .309, good for third on the team.

"I've been more consistent, more than anything. I'm taking one approach and trying to stick with it in every single at-bat, which has been my weakness this year," he said.

In the series against the Beavers last week, Hassey stopped pulling off of the ball and took a more opposite-field approach, he said.

The recent offensive improvements improved the coaching staff's already high opinion of him.

"I'm so pleased with Hassey- he's done a great job. He's exactly what you're looking for on the field and is no problem off of the field. I wish as a group we could play better for him, because he's a senior. But there's still plenty of the season left, and hopefully, we'll make sure it's a good one for Brad," Lopez said.

Tomorrow, sophomore Joe Little (5-2, 4.65) will face Tim Cunningham (4-1, 2.85), and Sunday sophomore Marc Kaiser (5-2, 2.63) will close out the series against John Hudgins (5-0, 3.63). Both games begin at 1 p.m.

All games are at Sancet Field.