While most teams will be sweating out their final weekend series of the year hoping to win conference tournaments — or at least brighten their resumes for the NCAA tournament selection committee — the No. 5 Stanford Cardinal will play a non-conference home series lacking almost any sense of drama against Cal Poly beginning tonight at Sunken Diamond.

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Adrian Gaitan

Starting hurler Tim Cunniham is one of four Cardinal seniors that will be honored at Sunday’s Senior Day before Stanford’s final regular season game commences.

The Pacific 10 Conference champion Cardinal (38-15, 18-6 Pac-10) has little to play for against the Mustangs (27-25-1, 9-12 Big West Conference), as even one win over the visitors will very likely secure a national seed — and, thereby, the right to host the regional and super regional playoff rounds — for the fifth consecutive season.

With a top-five ranking in each of the four national polls, an 11-1 May record and hosting experience in each of the four years of the current NCAA postseason format, Stanford does not seem to be in danger of falling out of the top eight seeds when they are announced on Monday.

“I think winning the Pac-10 title and playing the non-conference schedule that we did along with the facility we have bodes well for us,” said head coach Mark Marquess. “There are no guarantees but I would think we would be able to host.”

Excelling against the difficult non-conference slate that Marquess schedules each year — which in 2003 included currently ranked No. 1 Florida State, No. 3 Cal State Fullerton and No. 9 Texas — in addition to competing in the always challenging Pac-10 gives Stanford loads of national respect each year come tournament time.

In 2001 and 2002, the selection committee awarded the Cardinal with national seeds on the strength of its solid record and quality scheduling despite Stanford’s failure to capture even a share of those seasons’ conference crowns.

This year, with a Pac-10 title in hand already, the Cardinal host Cal Poly, hoping only to prevent rust and avoid a late season letdown.

The Mustangs, however, see the series as a chance to salvage their mediocre season. One win at Sunken Diamond this weekend would secure a winning season for Cal Poly, but a Cardinal sweep would end the Mustangs’ season one game below the .500 mark.

Taking a game from Stanford, however, will be no easy task. The Cardinal has dominated the Mustangs in their series history, winning 40 of 45 games including a 2002 sweep in which Stanford outscored them 37-14.

Cal Poly did pull out a surprising 12-inning 6-5 win to open the 2001 season in San Luis Obispo, but there is little doubt about the Cardinal’s supremacy in the all-time series.

Nevertheless, many times in sports the team with more to play for comes out on top, and the Mustangs will be hoping that adage proves true at least once over the weekend.

While cognizant of his opponents’ incentives, Marquess will play the series conservatively, using the weekend as a final tune-up before the postseason begins in one week at Sunken Diamond.

“We want to continue to play well,” he said. “We won’t let our starting pitchers go too long or play somebody who might be banged up, but we still want to win the games. The main thing is that we’re playing games this weekend instead of being off.”

Tonight, there will be fireworks at Sunken Diamond regardless of the action on the field, as the wildly popular annual pyrotechnics show will follow the 6 p.m. game.

Sunday’s contest will be preceded by a short Senior Day ceremony honoring the team’s four seniors.