Stanford baseball needed to come out of the gate strong at California this weekend. But after losing two of three at Evans Diamond by a 19-9 margin, the Cardinal’s conference hopes look bleaker than ever, with the squad still looking for its first Pacific-10 Conference series victory.

Stanford (16-20, 2-10 Pac-10) started the series with a Friday night tilt against the Bears’ ace righty Tyson Ross. Ross shut down the Cardinal, going 7.2 innings and allowing only five hits.

The game was largely an exercise in offensive futility for Stanford, as just three players — junior right fielder Michael Taylor, junior first baseman Randy Molina and sophomore left fielder Joey August — collected hits against the Bears (21-20, 5-7), who won 3-0. The Cardinal left eight men on base as sophomore Jeremy Bleich took yet another hard-luck loss, dropping his record 1-6, despite allowing just six hits over 7.2 innings.

“Tyson Ross pitched a very good game against us today,” coach Mark Marquess said. “And when you have a couple of chances to score like we did, you have to take advantage of them.”

The series’ second game provided redemption. The Cardinal won out in an emotional roller-coaster, scoring three runs in the seventh and eighth innings en route to a 4-3 thriller over its Bay Area rivals. Junior Erik Davis got the win in relief of freshman starter Jeffrey Inman, who allowed just two runs in five innings of work.

But it was clutch hitting that really won the game for the Cardinal, which entered the seventh down 2-1. Sophomore shortstop Cord Phelps’ single drove in the inning’s first run, and sophomore centerfielder Sean Ratliff drew an RBI walk for the second.

Cal came back in the bottom half of the seventh, though, scoring one run on a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt, sending the game to the eighth tied at three. But junior catcher Brian Juhl’s single drove in an unearned run in the eighth, and junior Nolan Gallagher pitched two scoreless innings of one-hit ball for his first save of the year.

“We really wanted to come out today and show the type of team we’re made of,” junior second baseman Adam Sorgi said. “This was a really good team victory for us. The one thing that we got today that we’ve been missing all year is this type of momentum.”

Stanford couldn’t keep the momentum Sunday, however, as the Bears blasted their way to a 13-5 thrashing. Cal’s eight-run first inning against Davis and sophomores Max Fearnow and Tom Stilson did most of the damage. Fearnow allowed five earned runs on five hits, while recording just one out in his first start of the season.

Defense was again a problem for the Cardinal, as the Bears scored three runs after senior third baseman Ryan Seawell’s error extended the inning. All told, Stanford committed seven errors in the final two games of the series.

The series loss to the Bears deals a serious blow to the Cardinal’s postseason hopes, as Stanford will remain last in the Pac-10 with just a pair of conference victories. California now sits at seventh in the Pac-10 with its sixth win of the year against a conference opponent. The weekend seemed to show just how far Stanford has regressed: The Cardinal swept the Bears in a non-conference series earlier this season.

Stanford will return to action at home this week with a pair of non-conference games, Tuesday against San Jose State and Wednesday against Fresno State, before hosting conference rival and defending national champion Oregon State in a three-game weekend series.