Cardinal baseball will ride a three-game win streak and a No. 11 ranking into its second Pac-10 series of the year, a weekend set against struggling USC.

The Trojans (11-18, 2-4) have won just three of their last 11 games, while Stanford (14-7, 2-1 Pac-10) has won as many contests in the last week. The No. 8 Cardinal celebrated head coach Mark Marquess’ 1,400th career victory last Sunday in a 4-3 victory over Washington State, and improved to 6-0 in mid-week games with a 5-2 win over visiting San Jose State.

Stanford hopes to take advantage of a favorable matchup this weekend against a USC team picked to finish ninth in the Pac-10 by the coaches, but there is still much for the Cardinal to be concerned about. The squad has mustered only a 6-6 record on the road, despite a nearly perfect mark in Sunken Diamond. Stanford’s offense has cooled off considerably in the last two games, following a three-game stretch that saw the Cardinal score 46 runs; meanwhile, USC has scored 38 times in its last four contests, though only managed to win twice.

Stanford has also won just one Friday opener through five series on the season, with the only win coming in the first game of the season against No. 22 Rice. The Owls happen to be the only team that has faced both USC and Stanford in a series this year; the Trojans were swept, while the Cardinal took two of three.

Plenty has changed for Stanford, however, since the season began a month and a half ago. Shortstop Kenny Diekroeger, who finished eighth in the Pac-10 last year in batting average among players with at least 25 at-bats, has put up even better numbers this season, climbing to second in the same category with a .422 average. The sophomore will also take a 15-game hit streak into Los Angeles this weekend.

Also notable is the emergence of freshman second baseman Lonnie Kauppila, who was named a national player of the week by Collegiate Baseball and received similar conference-level honors for the Pac-10. The freshman hit 15 for 20 last week, raising his batting average by nearly 170 points and rising to second on the team in slugging percentage (.493), behind only freshman Brian Ragira.

Kauppila went hitless on Tuesday in a 5-2 win over San Jose State, but five hits as a team in the first two innings were enough to secure the victory for the Cardinal after it jumped out to an early lead. By the third, Stanford was already up 5-0, with four different players recording RBI.

Getting out of the gates quickly again will be key this weekend; Stanford and USC have each lost only once when leading after the sixth inning. Neither team has lost when ahead going into the ninth, thanks to solid performances by Cardinal closer Chris Reed and Trojan finisher Chad Smith.

But Reed isn’t the only shutdown pitcher for Stanford. Among the Cardinal’s seven hurlers who have appeared in five games or more, not a single one has an ERA above 4.12 or an opposing batting average above .297.

The starting position represents Stanford’s largest advantage over the Trojans, as USC’s three right-handers slated to start this weekend have a combined record of just 4-11, compared to 9-4 for their Stanford counterparts.

The Cardinal will start its rotation in traditional order with sophomore Mark Appel going on Friday, junior Jordan Pries following him on Saturday and sophomore Dean McArdle finishing up the series.

The action will kick with 6:00 p.m. contests on Friday and Saturday, preceding an early-afternoon 1:00 p.m. start time on Sunday.