When Drawing Was Made, Scheffels Held Lucky Number : Simi Valley baseball: Rested junior right-hander gets the nod over Leppard to start postponed championship game.

Their numbers are strikingly similar, right down to the digits displayed on the backs of their jerseys.

So are their roles. All season, right-handers Bill Scheffels, who wears No. 30, and Trevor Leppard, who wears No. 31, have been the top two starting pitchers for the Simi Valley High baseball team.

But who’s No. 1?

Coach Mike Scyphers has refused to say, mostly because he hasn’t had to. Simply, Scheffels has started one game, Leppard the next.

However, with the rainout of Saturday’s Southern Section Division I championship game against Esperanza at Anaheim Stadium, Scyphers found himself forced to choose between the two.

And he has.

Scyphers announced Tuesday that Scheffels (11-1), a junior, will start tonight at 7:30 when Simi Valley and Esperanza finally will play for the title at Anaheim Stadium.

Leppard (8-1), a senior, was scheduled to start Saturday. It was his turn. And Scheffels pitched four innings to earn the victory in a 10-0 semifinal victory over Notre Dame.

Leppard has a 1.89 earned-run average and 77 strikeouts in 77 2/3 innings this season. Scheffels has a 1.17 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 66 innings. Leppard has appeared in 16 games, Scheffels 15. Both have two complete-game victories.

However, with both healthy and fully rested, Scyphers weighed his options.

“It was an extremely difficult decision to make, having to break the news to Trevor,” Scyphers said. “He’s a little upset and I told him I understand. I said, ‘If you’re not upset, then you’re not a competitor.’ ”

Leppard, Scyphers said, will be called upon to relieve.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” Leppard said. “I’ll be pumped. It doesn’t matter if I throw the first or last pitch. As long as we win.”

And if he doesn’t pitch at all?

“I don’t know,” Leppard said. “I’ll be . . . I don’t know . . . frustrated.”

Scheffels, whom Scyphers said “has been sharper of late,” pitched a no-hitter in April against Pittsburg, Calif., during the High Sierra Classic in Reno. But Scheffels said he’ll be surprised if he goes the distance tonight.

“I’m expecting to go about five (innings),” Scheffels said. “I’m excited. He pulled us both aside and said it was a couple of factors. We both back each other up. If I wasn’t pitching, I’d be 100% behind Trevor.”

Making the change was about as unpleasant a duty as Scyphers has had in his 15 years at Simi Valley. The Pioneers (27-3), ranked No. 1 in the nation by USA Today, are playing in their first championship game in school history.

Esperanza (24-5), which eliminated the Pioneers in the playoffs in 1986 and 1988, is a fastball-hitting team, Scyphers said, and Scheffels throws better off-speed pitches than Leppard or senior right-hander Bill Treadway (8-0), who also is available for relief.

The move also will strengthen the Pioneers defensively. Scheffels bats in every game and plays first base when he isn’t pitching. However, Scott Miller, who has three home runs in the playoffs, is a better first baseman than Scheffels, Scyphers said.

With Scheffels pitching, Miller moves from left field to first base and Denver Smith, a good outfielder, plays left.

“We just feel we’ll be better if Scheffels starts and Leppard relieves,” Scyphers said. “Leppard is used to that. That’s his mentality, to come in and slam the door.”

Leppard, primarily a reliever last season, had four saves to go with a 7-3 record and a 3.67 ERA.

Treadway, the Pioneers’ all-time winningest pitcher with 25 victories, also has been impressive in the playoffs since returning from a late-season shoulder injury. Treadway pitched 3 2/3 perfect innings to earn the victory in relief of Leppard as Simi Valley beat Diamond Bar, 8-6, in the quarterfinals.

Treadway has a 2.13 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings.

Simi Valley will face right-hander Marcus Jones of Esperanza (11-2), who has not pitched since going three innings June 1 in a 2-0 semifinal victory over Crespi.

“He would have been ready (Saturday),” Esperanza Coach Mike Curran said. “We weren’t really in a situation where we were putting our ace in a position to come in and throw too soon.

“I guess the only difference is that if we had to go to extra innings, we would have had to pull him. Now, he can go 10.”