Simmons is helping Riverside make impact

James Simmons is projected as a late first-round pick in the upcoming baseball draft, but right now the UC Riverside junior pitcher is more concerned with cartography.

Well, that and trying to help the first-place Highlanders clinch their first Big West Conference title in baseball.

They’ll try to take care of the conference title during a weekend series against second-place UC Irvine that begins today in Riverside. The Highlanders (36-17, 15-3 in the Big West) need to win only one of three games to secure the title.

And that, Simmons said, would help take care of his cartography issue.

“It would go a long way toward putting this program on the map,” Simmons said. “I mean, not too many people know where Riverside, California is, but if we keep playing the way we’ve been playing it’ll definitely put us on the map.”

Riverside has played at the Division I level only since 2001 and has therefore been an afterthought on the Southern California baseball scene. But this has been a breakthrough season for the Highlanders.

Nationally, they are ranked No. 13 by Collegiate Baseball, No. 16 by Baseball America and No. 22 in the coaches poll. They were undefeated against Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State for the first time in team history.

Those teams have combined to win 13 of the last 15 Big West titles. The last time another team won the conference was Cal State Northridge in 2001.

Riverside’s sweep over the 49ers last weekend came on the road. Before that, the Highlanders had never won at Blair Field. They have won seven consecutive games, 14 of their last 15, and five consecutive series.

“The first couple of years when we were in the Big West, there was a little bit of the feeling that we were playing up a level,” Riverside Coach Doug Smith said. “We’ve certainly started to overcome that and if we can go out this weekend and get a conference championship, it will go a long way in taking it further.”

Before joining Division I, Riverside was a Division II power, winning national titles in 1977 and 1982.

The Highlanders were 19-35 in 2001, their first season at Division I, and 30-28 in 2002. In 2003 came the first breakthrough, a 41-17 record and a trip to an NCAA regional. Still, it was only good for third place in the Big West and did little for the program’s recognition.

Jaime Pedroza, the team’s top hitter with a .330 average, 12 home runs and 50 runs batted in, said he didn’t even realize Riverside had a Division I team until 2003 -- his junior year in high school. His brother, Sergio, played for Fullerton in 2003-05, starring as an outfielder on the Titans’ 2004 national champion club.

“I remember Riverside swept them [in 2003],” said Pedroza, who played at Covina Northview High. “That was the first time I realized Riverside had a team.”

It didn’t make for easy recruiting. Getting kids from Orange County, the South Bay and Riverside was a tough sell, so Smith said he decided to concentrate his efforts in the Inland Empire, a hotbed for youth baseball.

Now, 60% of the Highlanders’ roster is made up of players from within a 30-mile radius of the school. And many of those players, Smith said, are players overlooked by schools whose recruiters simply do not want to make the congested drive to the Inland Empire.

“Sometimes guys don’t want to hop on the 91 and come East,” Smith said. “You could sit there for a day. So many times I think guys do get overlooked and we made the decision to try and keep those kids here and we end up with a bunch of Inland guys that play and pitch for us every day that are really good.”

One of them is Simmons, who came from Norco High. The right-hander is 10-2 with a 2.08 earned-run average and is the leading candidate for Big West pitcher of the year. He uses impeccable control -- 107 strikeouts and only 13 walks in 108 1/3 innings pitched -- to lead a staff that is 12th in the nation with a combined 3.39 ERA.

But while pitching has most often carried the team, resilience has also been a factor. The Highlanders, 3-7 in one-run games last season, are 11-6 this season.

They have won five games in which they were trailing heading into the ninth inning and have outscored opponents, 129-75, from the seventh inning on.

“We’re not afraid to play anybody,” Simmons said. “We’re not afraid to be behind in the ninth inning. We’ve got pretty much a fearless team.”

They’ve also overcome adversity. No. 2 starter Marc Rzepczynski, a highly regarded left-hander also expected to go high in the draft, punched a wall and broke a knuckle on his pitching hand before the Long Beach Series last week, but sophomore Matt Montgomery -- making his second start of the season -- took a shutout into the ninth inning of a 2-1 victory.

“We’re a pretty confident group right now,” Pedroza said. “We feel like we can do anything with anybody in the lineup.”

peter.yoon@latimes.com

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The first steps to Omaha

As the regular season enters its final weekend, here’s a look at the local teams and their outlook for making the postseason:

* Cal State Fullerton, (32-21, 9-9 and tied for fifth in Big West) -- Perennial World Series participant is on the bubble for a regional berth. Best hope is that a good showing against Long Beach this weekend sways the NCAA selection committee.

* Long Beach State, (35-17, 13-5 and tied for second in Big West) -- A tournament team no matter what happens this weekend, but a series win would increase its chances of hosting a regional.

* UC Riverside, (36-17, 15-3 and first in Big West) -- One victory away from clinching an automatic berth, they’re a tournament team regardless.

* Pepperdine, (35-20, 14-7 and third in West Coast) -- On the bubble. Swept Portland to finish the regular season after losing eight of 11.

* UC Irvine, (38-14-1, 13-5 and tied for second in Big West) -- A sweep over

UC Riverside would bring home a conference title, an automatic regional berth and possibly host status. The Anteaters should get in no matter what.

* UCLA, (29-24, 13-8 and third in Pacific 10) -- A good weekend against defending national champion Oregon State would probably secure a berth -- but the Beavers are also scrambling

to get in.

* USC, (26-27, 8-13 and tied for seventh in Pacific 10) -- Needs a sweep over Stanford this weekend to even be a longshot.

* Loyola Marymount, (22-33-1, 9-12 and tied for fourth in West Coast) -- Not this year.

* UC Santa Barbara, (23-28, 9-9 and tied for fifth in Big West) -- Not this

year.

* Cal State Northridge, (14-39, 2-16 and seventh in Big West) -- Not this

year.

Division II

Cal State Los Angeles opens the Division II College World Series today when they face defending national champion Tampa at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Ala.

The Golden Eagles (43-15-1) are making their first Division II World Series appearance. They played in the 1977 Division I World series and went 2-2. Senior third baseman Jeff Carroll, West Region player of the year, leads the team with a .406 batting average, 16 home runs, 74 runs batted in and 71 runs scored.

Division III

Chapman enters the Division III World Series as the top-ranked team in the nation and will play defending champion Marietta College in the opening round today at Appleton, Wis.

Chapman (40-6), which finished third last year, is playing in its third straight World Series and fourth in five years.

The Panthers already have set a school record for victories. Pitcher Devin Drag (15-0) leads the nation in victories. He has a 2.24 ERA and was named West Region pitcher of the year.

-- PETER YOON