Chapman’s Pastures Just as Green to Rolish : College baseball: Former Cal State Fullerton player finds happiness and competition at the Division II school.

ORANGE —  Jason Rolish has been to college baseball’s promised land. As a sophomore at Cal State Fullerton, he started 35 games for the Titans, who advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., finishing third.

“A lot of other players don’t get to do that, so I felt pretty lucky to be a part of it,” Rolish said.

Times have changed for Rolish. And it’s unlikely that he will return to Nebraska wearing a college baseball uniform. Because of a decision he made after his sophomore season, Rolish left Fullerton and now plays for Chapman College, a Division II team in a three-way race for the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship.

Clearly, in terms of prestige, Chapman, with only one Division II title (1968), is a step below Cal State Fullerton, which has won two Division I national championships.

And even though Rolish, who once hit a home run in the Louisiana Superdome, now plays in more humble ballparks, he is just as happy. This season, he is hitting over .300 and starting in center field for Chapman, the No. 16 team in last week’s Division II poll.

Rolish has no regrets about the move.

“In Southern California baseball, there is really no difference between colleges from (Chapman) on up, because anyone can be beaten,” he said.

When Chapman tests that premise in a game against the Titans tonight at Fullerton, Rolish said he’ll probably be more excited than usual. Chapman has defeated five of its eight Division I opponents this season, including the Titans once.

These nonconference games are important to the Panthers’ baseball program, which plans to move into Division I in 1992. But for Rolish, the games have an added significance because of the circumstances surrounding his departure from Fullerton.

Rolish said he and Titan Coach Larry Cochell didn’t get along. Cochell, who replaced Augie Garrido after Rolish’s freshman season at Fullerton, said Rolish wouldn’t accept coaching decisions that meant he wouldn’t be playing as much as he would have liked.

Despite his differences with Cochell, Rolish said he was prepared to return to the Titans his junior season before a meeting with Cochell in late June.

After reminiscing about the season with Cochell at the meeting, Rolish asked the coach what he had planned for him the next season.

“ ‘We’ve given your scholarship away. We heard you were leaving,’ ” Rolish remembered Cochell saying.

Cochell, who declined to talk about the situation in detail, denied that he told Rolish the scholarship was given away. Cochell said he told Rolish that he would have to beat out Bobby Jones, who started the last 17 games of the season and now plays in the Angels’ farm system.

Cochell said he told Rolish: “If you come back next year, you’re coming back behind Bobby Jones. If you feel like you can get more playing time somewhere else, I’ll release you.”

There is no argument about what happened next. Rolish went looking for another place to play baseball, and after considering Cal State Northridge, he accepted a full scholarship at Chapman.

Looking back, Rolish said he has no hard feelings against Cochell and doesn’t believe the switch to Division II has harmed his chances of playing professionally.

“I haven’t noticed a big difference,” he said. “Anyone can play just as well as the next guy, especially around here.”

Rolish signed a letter of intent to play for then-Titan coach Garrido late in the summer of 1986 after graduating from Servite High School. He had planned to play at Cypress College, but the Titans needed another catcher and despite his 5-foot-10, 175-pound build, Rolish was one of the best prep catchers in Orange County.

His senior season at Servite, Rolish batted .500 and helped the Friars to the Southern Section playoffs. But it was his throwing that most impressed Servite Coach Mike McNary.

“He had the strongest arm of any catcher I have ever seen,” McNary said. “He threw out 10 guys at second on pickoffs from his knees. He was just amazing.”

Rolish was a reserve catcher for the Titans his freshman season, but he was a faster runner than Garrido had expected, and was moved to the outfield for the next season.

“I thought he’d lose his running speed as a catcher, and he’s not big enough to look forward to a pro career as a catcher,” said Garrido, now baseball coach at Illinois. “I felt that if we took his speed away, we would be doing him a disservice.”

If Rolish plays professional baseball, it likely will require another switch--to the infield, said Chapman Coach Mike Weathers, who played second base in the Oakland Athletics’ organization after graduating from Chapman in 1971.

Rolish’s physical attributes won’t carry him into the pros, but Weathers said his determination to succeed will take him a long way.

It’s his love for the game that will get him into the pros, Rolish said. Neither of his parents are especially athletic and neither were involved in interscholastic sports in high school, but baseball always has been a part of the Rolish household.

Rolish’s mother, Lois, helped teach the children to throw, and his father, Rusty, coached various Little League teams. It’s hard to argue with results: Aamber, Rolish’s sister, batted .450 as a softball player for Rosary High and Chad, the youngest Rolish, pitched a no-hitter while striking out 18 for Servite this season.

Now, Jason Rolish hopes to move to the next level of success: To be paid for doing something he has been excelling at since he was 6. Former Fullerton teammates now playing professionally tell him what to expect. Some tell him that it is difficult to get used to playing every day. Others, such as Mike Harkey, now playing for the Chicago Cubs, tell him of the perks, something he knows about.

“The people treat you great because you are a professional,” Rolish said. “That’s how we were treated up in Omaha and that was one of the greatest feelings, being popular because you were wearing a uniform.”