Riverside rolls past Nebraska, 10-5

Second-seeded UC Riverside defeated third-seeded Nebraska, 10-5, in the opener of an NCAA Division I baseball regional at Winkles Field in Tempe, Ariz., on Friday.

Junior starter James Simmons improved to 11-3, yielding seven hits and three runs in 7 1/3 innings. Shortstop Jaime Pedroza led the offense with a homer -- his 13th of the season -- and four RBIs.

Riverside (38-19) broke the game open in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Ben Price singled and Kyle Barratt and Jeff Dunbar walked to load the bases.

Carl Uhl then hit the first pitch from Luke Wertz off the wall in right to drive in Price and Barratt, giving the Highlanders a 5-1 lead. After a walk to Joey Gonzales, Pedroza singled to drive in Dunbar and Uhl.

Simmons, a junior right-hander, threw 133 pitches. He walked two.

“It was a good, solid effort by James [Simmons] today, as usual,” said Riverside Coach Doug Smith. “On Fridays [openers of Big West Conference series] we ride him a long, long way.

“We probably went a little further than we would have liked to. But the idea is to advance beyond today in the tournament and we felt this would be the best way to do it.”

The Highlanders will next play top-seeded Arizona State (44-13), which beat Monmouth, 5-3. The Cornhuskers (30-26) play Monmouth (36-23-1) in an elimination game.

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Cody Cipriano and Jeff Cusick drove in three runs apiece to lead second-seeded UC Irvine to a 13-0 victory over third-seeded Wake Forest at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.

The win gave the Anteaters (41-15-1) their first regional victory in the program’s Division I history. They will next play top-seeded Texas (45-15), which beat fourth-seeded Brown, 8-2.

Wes Etheridge blanked the Demon Deacons (33-28) on four hits and struck out 10 in eight innings to improve to 12-4. Christian Bergman pitched a perfect ninth to preserve the Anteaters’ eighth shutout of the season.

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Evan McArthur and Josh Fellhauer each hit a two-run home run in a five-run fourth inning to back the seven-hit, complete-game effort of Wes Roemer, and Cal State Fullerton (34-23) beat Minnesota, 7-1, at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego.

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Bill Rhinehart singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, and Arizona beat Oral Roberts, 4-3, at Wichita, Kan. The Wildcats (41-15) improved to 35-0 when leading after seven innings.... Defending national champion Oregon State (39-17) opened with a 5-1 victory over Rutgers at Charlottesville, Va.