A little bit of home cooking is in store for the Simi Valley and Royal high school baseball teams.

Both programs open the CIFSouthern Section Division I playoffs today at 3:15 p.m. in the friendly confines of their own ballparks.

Simi Valley (20-8), the Marmonte League champion and defending section title holder, hosts Temescal Canyon (14-10), a wild-card winner from the Southwestern League.

The Marmonte's second-place squad, Royal (19-6), drew Villa Park (16-11), a third seed from the Century League.

After suffering one-run road defeats during the past two postseason opening rounds, Royal head coach Dan Maye said he's excited to be staying local.

"If it's a close game, it's always nice to know you have that last at-bat," Maye said.

Royal, winners of four in a row including a 1-0 triumph over Simi Valley in its regular-season finale, has two solid pitching options in junior Cody Buckel (7-2, 1.92 ERA, three saves) and senior Bryan Berglund (5-1, 1.52 ERA, two saves).

"If the first game comes down to us having to use them both," Maye said, "then we're going to use them both to try and move on."

Simi Valley head coach Matt La Belle fully understands that every team's going to be gunning for the reigning section champion, and he'll have his players on upset alert from the opening round.

"You always want to dethrone the team that's on top, which is fine," La Belle said. "We just have to make sure we're up for the game and we'll be fine."

Senior Drew Sandler and sophomore Levi Shordon are the goto pitchers for Simi Valley. Senior shortstop Jonathan Meyer remains a dangerous presence in the heart of the Pioneers' lineup.

Grace Brethren won its Division VI wild-card contest, 16-0, at home against Sierra Canyon on Tuesday afternoon. The Lancers (17-10) played aPoly of Pasadena on Thursday.