As the eight seniors on the No. 12 UCLA softball team take the field at Easton Stadium for the last time in regular season play this weekend, plenty is on the line.

The Bruins need wins in order to remain in the hunt for a Pac-10 title and secure their bid to host the opening rounds of postseason play.

Standing in the way are California (30-27, 4-11 Pac-10), whom the Bruins play today at 1 p.m., and No. 16 Stanford (31-14-1, 6-8-1), whom the Bruins play on Saturday and Sunday.

While the Bears are tied for last place in the Pac-10 and the Cardinal sit in sixth place, both teams are coming off of big weekends and have proven that they can win games in conference play.

“We take every team seriously,” senior center fielder Tara Henry said. “You can’t take any team lightly. It’s often the teams at the bottom that surprise you because you become complacent, but I think if we play our game and are alert, we’ll be fine.”

The Bruins are coming off of their best weekend of conference play having swept the Oregon schools, but the Bears are also coming off of a huge weekend. California stunned No. 9 Arizona State last weekend, sweeping a two-game set with the Sun Devils and moving into a tie with No. 18 Oregon for seventh place in the Pac-10.

“It just shows that simply anything can happen in the Pac-10,” coach Kelly Inouye-Perez said. “Just when people began to count (California) out, they sweep ASU. That shows that the game doesn’t know who’s supposed to win and if anything, it heightens my awareness in preparing for this weekend.”

The Bruins, meanwhile, know firsthand how tough Stanford can be. The Cardinal were able to take advantage of Bruin mistakes and come away with a 6-4 victory.

“Playing Stanford the first time around, we clearly didn’t play our game,” Inouye-Perez said. “Although the score showed that they beat us up pretty good, we just weren’t on our game.”

The Cardinal are also coming off of a big weekend, in which they defeated Pac-10 leader No. 5 Arizona on Saturday and played the Wildcats to a 0-0 tie in a 12-inning contest on Sunday in a game that was called due to Arizona’s need to catch its flight back to Tucson.

With the Bears’ victories over Arizona State and the Cardinal’s win over Arizona, all of a sudden, a Bruin team that seemed destined to finish somewhere in the middle of the conference race finds itself right back in the hunt for its second consecutive Pac-10 title. The Bruins are tied for second place with Arizona State and Washington and trail only Arizona, whom they will face next weekend.

“I think it’s good to shoot high,” senior shortstop Jodie Legaspi said. “I’d love to walk away with two Pac-10 titles at the end of my career. It’s not out of the question at all.”

SNACKS AND T-SHIRTS: The Den will be giving away snacks to the first 50 students in attendance at Saturday’s 2 p.m. contest against Stanford. They will also be giving away T-shirts to the first 25 to 50 students who come to the game.