The Stanford softball team moves on to their next challenge this weekend, heading south to Fullerton, Calif. for the DeMarini Invitational.

The Cardinal (12-3) will play five games over the three-day weekend, with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday. Stanford will square off against Southern Mississippi and Iowa on Friday, UC-Santa Barbara and Murray State on Saturday, then finish up against Cal State Northridge on Sunday.

The Cardinal is coming off a solid 4-1 weekend at home last weekend in the Stanford Nike Invitational that included a 4-2 win over the No. 24 Kentucky Wildcats.

Stanford’s only loss over the weekend was a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Memphis Tigers, but the Card then swept its final four games, blowing out North Dakota State 12-0, knocking off Kentucky 4-2, blasting Colorado State 16-2 and beating UC-Davis 5-3.

Sophomore Jenna Rich was an offensive force for the Cardinal, tallying eight hits with two triples and a home run, and junior Ashley Hansen also had eight hits, with five doubles and eight RBI.

Sophomore Teagan Gerhart and senior Ashley Chinn also continued their dominant seasons in the pitching circle, as they split time over the weekend with Chinn recording a 0.54 ERA and picking up two wins and a save.

The Card’s biggest test this weekend will come against UC-Santa Barbara, which has a 9-5 record this season, a .313 team batting average and a scoring differential of 66-44 in their favor.

The solid weekend on the Farm helped push Stanford’s ranking up to No. 14 in the ESPN.com/USA Softball poll and No. 16 USA Today/NFCA poll.

After the weekend in Fullerton, Stanford will take next week off as it prepares for finals. The Cardinal will be back in action the weekend of March 18-20 as it hosts the Stanford Louisville Slugger Classic at Smith Family Stadium. The Cardinal will wrap up the preseason tournaments at home the following weekend with the Stanford Invitational, March 25-27.