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Alvin Chow

Freshman Alissa Haber has been swinging a hot bat for the Cardinal at the top of the lineup as of late. Over the weekend, the centerfielder hit .500 with a pair of RBI.

With four games left on its regular-season schedule, the No. 16 Stanford softball team is looking to catch fire as it heads toward the postseason. The Card will have the chance to light a spark with a midweek non-conference matchup at UC-Davis (30-24-1) this afternoon.

Stanford is coming off a West Coast road-swing in which it lost 7-0 to No. 11 Washington on Friday and split two games with No. 12 UCLA, 0-3 and 4-1. Today’s game against the Aggies will be the squad’s final away game of the season, as the Cardinal comes home afterward for matchups against Oregon and Oregon State.

History is on Stanford’s side in its matchup against Davis — the Cardinal is 4-0 all-time against the Aggies. Earlier this season, Stanford defeated Davis 7-1 in the final game of the Stanford Invitational II. That victory capped off a 3-1 weekend in which the hosting Cardinal captured the tournament title on its own field. In the championship game, the Aggies struck first in the bottom of the second, but the Card exploded for seven runs in the top of the fourth to escape with the ‘W.’

Sophomore pitcher Missy Penna was credited with the victory after allowing one run on four hits in seven innings of work to continue her dominance of the Aggies. Last season, Penna also earned her first career no-hitter against Davis in an 11-0 victory.

On the season, Penna has been overwhelming in the circle. She is currently building upon career highs with a 23-9 record, a 2.13 ERA and 264 strikeouts. On the offensive end, freshman centerfielder Alissa Haber is leading the Cardinal offense with a scorching .366 average with 56 hits (13 of them doubles) and a team-high slugging percentage of .542 on the season.

On Sunday against the Bruins, Penna allowed just one run on three hits in seven innings, while Haber notched a career-high four hits and drove in two runs for the victory. With the win, Stanford took the season series against UCLA, two games to one. Stanford’s record now stands at 32-16-1 overall (7-10-1 in the Pacific-10 Conference), while UCLA dropped to 34-15 (10-8 Pac-10).

Despite its current status as a Division-I provisional program, Davis is not an opponent to be taken lightly. After a dismal 2006 campaign in which they finished 15-39, the Aggies have already doubled their win total this season. Their lineup is anchored by the complete offensive threat of sophomore Deanna Menapace, who is batting .331 with 10 doubles, 10 HRs and 22 walks on the season. The ace of the Davis pitching staff is sophomore Jessica Hancock, who owns a 15-12 record with a 2.04 ERA and 184 strikeouts.

Vying for their 33rd win of the season, the members of the Cardinal squad are certainly glad to have completed their final road trip of the season, as they own a near-perfect 18-4-1 record at the Boyd and Jill Smith Family Stadium.