COLLEGE BASEBALL : NCAA TOURNAMENT WEST II REGIONAL : Often-Injured Vigo Tries to Keep Order : CSUN: Hard-hitting third baseman, batting behind Sharts and Shockey, forces opposing pitchers to be honest--when he’s in the lineup.

To get an indication of Denny Vigo’s value to Cal State Northridge’s baseball team, take an imaginary trip to your local supermarket and head for the produce section.

Go to where the melons are stacked, then find a big one in the middle. Now pull it out.

You have a similar situation when Vigo is removed from the Northridge lineup. The batting order topples in much the same fashion.

Vigo, a junior third baseman, is the Matadors’ middle man. He bats in the fifth slot in the order, providing protection for cleanup hitter Greg Shockey.

It’s a domino effect. Shockey, in turn, discourages opponents from pitching around Scott Sharts, who has hit 22 home runs in the No. 3 slot.

And so it goes. But only when Vigo is in the lineup.

In the 18 games Vigo missed this season because of a torn right hamstring, a void in the Northridge lineup became a gaping hole. Fill-ins batted a combined .170.

“It was too much pressure for some guys to be in that spot,” Northridge Coach Bill Kernen said. “It was never designed for anybody but Vigo to be there. It was supposed to be him and Sharts and Shockey, in whatever order. The whole structure holds up better with him in there.”

If so, Northridge (41-16-1) should be on solid ground against Fresno State (37-20) tonight in the first round of the NCAA Division I baseball regionals at Fresno’s Beiden Field. Although the hamstring has not completely healed, Vigo will be at the core of the Matador order.

For Northridge, which will face Bobby Jones, Fresno’s ace right-hander, that is extremely good news. In nine career at-bats against Jones, Vigo has two game-winning home runs and a double.

One of the home runs, a two-run blast in the semifinals of the Fresno tournament in March, helped the Matadors deal Jones his only loss in 14 decisions.

Although he has just seven home runs this season, Vigo packs a wallop. Last year, one in which he stayed healthy, Vigo slugged 19 home runs, second on the team behind only Sharts, who hit a school-record 29.

Vigo periodically has battled muscle pulls since high school, but his latest problem actually can be traced to last season when he injured his right hamstring running out a base hit in the Division II World Series.

Much of Vigo’s summer and fall was spent rehabilitating his leg, but when spring baseball practice began he stopped doing some of his strengthening exercises.

Still, the leg felt fine until he slid into second base against UC Santa Barbara in Northridge’s 19th game of the season.

Vigo rested only two weeks, then returned to the lineup for the Fresno tournament. He survived the six-day, six-game tournament but was injured again--this time more severely--chasing a foul ball the following week against UC Irvine.

Doctors told him the muscle was torn in two places and gave him a choice--sit out the rest of the season, or rest for a month and try it again.

One doctor gave Vigo something extra to consider. “He told me it could be a lifelong thing, that someday when I was older I might not even be able to play golf because I’d always have to worry about my hamstring,” Vigo said.

He considered ending his season but instead reached a compromise with Kernen. Rather than dive for every pop fly and every grounder into the hole, Vigo would pick his spots. If he hit a ground ball with a runner at first, there would be no fruitless charge down the line in an effort to avoid the double play.

“If it’s iffy now I let it go,” Vigo said. “The two times I got hurt this year were stupid. I started feeling too good and I’d think, ‘I can do it.’ ”

Now he knows he can’t.

“He wants to be a part of it and we need him to be a part of it and give us whatever he can give us,” Kernen said. “We have to have him.”

Vigo’s second stint as a part-timer lasted 17 games, a span in which he appeared only as a pinch-hitter. Vigo returned to the lineup May 1 with a double-barrel bang against Pepperdine; he slugged two home runs as the Matadors defeated the Waves, 10-4.

“That’s the way my baseball career has been,” Vigo said. “I go to the bottom and then I get back on top. I’m just waiting for a time when I stay there.”

At El Camino Real High, Vigo was a hot pitching prospect before twice injuring his arm.

Professional scouts started to back off when Vigo injured the arm for the first time in the summer before his senior season, but the hard-throwing right-hander still thought he could fall back on a scholarship offer from Florida State.

Later, a disturbing call came from the Seminoles. “They told me straight out,” Vigo recalled, “ ‘We don’t want damaged goods.’ What could I say but tell them they were making a mistake?”

Kernen, who was hired by Northridge shortly after Vigo graduated from high school, just happened to agree. Vigo still had a strong throwing arm and, Kernen believed, potential as a power hitter.

However, that potential wasn’t immediately apparent. Vigo struggled as a freshman and hit only three home runs. Then, last season, it all came together. Just as he hopes it will this time around in the postseason.

“I’m hitting the ball better right now than I have all season,” Vigo said. “So many guys have picked me up this season. Now it’s my turn. It works both ways.”