Opposing base-runners try to steal bases on Stanford junior catcher Maverick Handley at their peril. He has thrown out 17 of 26 would-be base stealers in his 2½ -year career on the Farm.

“It’s important to throw as quickly as possible and put it on the bag,” he said Thursday. “I’d say accuracy is the most important thing, then quickness, then arm strength.”

“If that doesn’t work,” he said with a laugh, “it’s probably the pitcher’s fault.”

Besides being one of the top defensive catchers in the country, he has raised his batting average more than 50 points this year, to .282, third best on the Cardinal, the nation’s No. 2 team.

They take on the No. 1 team, UCLA, in a three-game series starting Friday night at Sunken Diamond. It’s the first matchup of the top two ranked teams at Stanford since early in the 2000 season, when No. 1 Stanford swept three games from No. 2 Cal State Fullerton.

It’s also the first matchup anywhere of the top two teams in the Baseball America poll in three years.

No. 1 vs. No. 2 at Stanford Who: No. 1 UCLA (21-5, 7-2 Pac-12) at No. 2 Stanford (19-3, 6-0) Where: Sunken Diamond When: 6 p.m. Friday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 p.m. Sunday

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“I don’t think anyone before the season expected this to be 1 against 2,” Handley said. The Bruins “are a really good program, but our guys are taking it game by game. It’s an opportunity for our program to get a little more press. For a top-5 team, we’re not talked about a lot, which can be a good thing.”

The Cardinal (19-3) lead the Pac-12 at 6-0 and have won 10 straight games. The Bruins (21-5) are in third at 7-2 but have taken a series from defending national champion Oregon State.

With Handley’s help, Stanford’s pitching staff has a national-best 2.36 ERA. UCLA is third (2.54).

Handley says his hitting started to improve in his sophomore year when new head coach David Esquer and his staff gave him more freedom to try to hit the ball hard and pull it. The previous staff, under Mark Marquess, preferred that he often try to take the ball to the opposite side.

Handley has reached base in all 22 games, and his .398 on-base percentage is second on the team.

A bioengineering major, Handley aspires to a be an orthopedic surgeon. “Hopefully, I’ll have a 20-year big-league career and then go to med school,” he said.

He traces his medical-career hopes to the injuries he has had in his athletic career. And that was before he broke a bone in his left (non-throwing) arm in a skateboard accident on campus in early May. The injury cost him the final 14 games of last season.

“I wasn’t doing anything stupid,” he said. “I was barely moving.” But when his board caught on a rock, he lost his balance. Esquer has since banned his players from riding skateboards.

Handley’s given name, by the way, has nothing to do with the nickname of the character Tom Cruise played in “Top Gun” or the old western TV series of the same name.

“My dad was a name freak,” he said. “He stumbled upon it and liked it.”

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald