VarsityXtra

The East Valley has seen good pitching this year, but not this good.

Meet Patrick Schuster, a senior at Mitchell High School just outside Tampa, Fla., who is headed to the University of Florida. But that’ll turn into the major leagues if he keeps doing this:

The 6-foot-2 slinging southpaw has thrown four consecutive no-hitters, with the latest coming Monday night in a 17-strikeout performance.

He routinely hit or topped 90 mph on the radar gun and had a sell-out crowd of nearly 800 in attendance for No. 4.

The national record is six consecutive no-hitters.

Yikes.

Four local players are among the home run leaders with a few games left in the regular season. Through Tuesday’s games, Scottsdale Desert Mountain’s Taylor Lindsey is the leader with 16 followed by Mesa Desert Ridge’s Jake Barrett and Scottsdale Horizon’s Tommy Joseph (15 each). Phoenix Desert Vista leadoff hitter Jaycob Brugman homered twice Tuesday in a win over Phoenix Mountain Pointe and is close to the leaders with 14. Desert Ridge and Horizon are among the top three schools in the power-point rankings in 5A-II. Ditto Desert Mountain and Desert Vista in 5A-I.

Also in the mix are Gilbert High’s D.J. Peterson with 13 homers and Desert Ridge’s Steven Bier and Mesa Red Mountain’s Cole Gleason, who each have 12 homers.

Mesa High infielder Chris Wert is hotter than Tuesday’s high temperature of 102. After going 10-for-10 at the plate last week in three games, Wert continued his torrid hitting. He finally made an out, but was 3-for-4 with a grand slam and seven RBIs in a 22-5 rout of Mesa Mountain View that kept the Jackrabbits’ slim playoff hopes alive. Wert has 15 RBIs, two doubles, a triple and two homers in his last four games. He’s hitting an even .500 (43-for-86) for the year.

Mesa’s win over Mountain View was its first in three years - to the day — over the Toros. Mesa won in 2006, 3-2, on April 21.

It’s been a wild ride in the 4A-II East Sky baseball race. That’s not likely to change until the final region game next week.

As teams head into play Thursday, four of the eight schools still have a shot at the region title. The hottest team at the moment is Gilbert Higley, one of three teams tied for the top spot at 7-4 (the others are Chandler Seton Catholic and Scottsdale Coronado). Scottsdale Arcadia is 6-5.

Higley finished 11-19 last year and tied for fourth in the region but didn’t qualify for state. The Knights opened region play this year 1-3. At present they’ve won seven of eight and six of their last seven region games. A much better go for coach Mike Masciangelo in his second season at the helm.

Higley visits last-place Tempe High on Thursday trying to retain a share of the region lead (Seton and Coronado also meet Thursday). Tempe can’t be taken lightly, not after knocking off region tri-leader Coronado on Tuesday.

A Higley win Thursday would set up a key region showdown next Tuesday between Higley and Seton, who could be tied for the region lead alone if both win Thursday.

Gilbert Highland has the most consistent and best pitching this baseball season. It shouldn’t be a surprise the Hawks can clinch a second consecutive 5A-I Fiesta Region title with a win over Gilbert High on Friday.

Highland (7-3 in region) has allowed 103 runs in 26 games (4 per game). That’s 39 fewer than any other team in the region.

Gilbert (5-3) is the only team that can catch Highland. The teams have split two meetings. The rubber match of the season series is Friday night at Gilbert. A win by Highland would mean the best Gilbert could do is tie for the top spot, but Highland would own the tiebreaker.

She might be the only softball pitcher in the East Valley to wear a protective face mask on the mound, but Gilbert Highland ace Christine Napodano isn’t wearing it for looks.

Or even because of past trauma.

There may be other hurlers in the East Valley who wear one (a few at third base and in the outfield wear protection), but if there are any other aces, odds are it’s because they’ve been hit by a ball.

Napodano hasn’t. The junior has worn it all three years of high school; mostly to prevent potential disaster, and, somehow, it was comfortable enough to pitch with so she enjoys wearing it.

Whether they’ve been hit by balls or not, it’s surprising more pitchers don’t wear them given the evolution of aluminum bats and how much better hitters have become in recent years.

Even if she never comes close, this ounce of protection would still be worth a pound (or more) of cure.

Chandler Basha’s baseball team has been given the unique opportunity of playing three of its power-point games this season in big-stadium venues. Wednesday night (7 p.m.) the Bears battle 5A-I Central rival Tempe Corona del Sol at the third of the three venues — Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

Two weeks ago Basha edged Phoenix Desert Vista, 3-2, in eight innings at Chase Field with Matt Potter pitching a complete game and driving in the game-winning run with a single.

Last week David Miczek blasted a three-run homer and pitched three scoreless innings of relief to earn the win as the Bears rallied past Phoenix Mountain Pointe, 8-4, at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

If only the 5A-I softball regular-season was already over.

The four best teams would be evenly distributed in the state bracket and quite likely be the final four come mid-May.

The four best, as I see them now, are Mesa Red Mountain, Phoenix St. Mary’s, Chandler Basha and Sierra Vista Buena.  If the state tournament began Tuesday, Red Mountain and Basha would be in the top half of the bracket as the current No. 1 and No. 5 seeds. St. Mary’s and Buena would be in the bottom half as the No. 2 and 7 seeds, respectively.

There are still two weeks for some shuffling to take place. It would be a shame if three of those four teams ended up in the same half of the bracket.  That happened last year in 5A-I baseball when the top half of the state bracket contained Hamilton, Desert Mountain, Mountain View, Brophy, Corona del Sol and Gilbert.

Here’s hoping the bracket gods split softball rightly.

The VisitMesa.com Basketball Challenge, formerly the Arizona Basketball Challenge, has finalized its lineup for 2009.  It is star-studded, team and individual-wise.

Arizona teams returning from last year’s field are Gilbert Highland, Mesa Mountain View, Mesa Red Mountain, Mesa Dobson and  Goodyear Estrella Foothills. Arizona teams competing for the first time are Phoenix St. Mary’s, Chandler, Gilbert Mesquite, Phoenix Mountain Pointe, Scottsdale Horizon, Tucson Santa Rita and Phoenix Sunnyslope.

The four out-of-state  entries are De La Salle, Concord,  Calif.; Lawndale College Prep, Chicago;  Ocean View,  Huntington Beach, Calif.; and Canyon Springs, North Las Vegas, Nev.

Individual talent on display will be Royce Woolridge of Sunnyslope,  verbal to Kansas;  Corey Hawkins, Estrella Foothills, verbal to ASU; Matt Carlino, Highland, verbal to Indiana; and Terrell Stoglin,  Santa Rita, verbal to Maryland.

St. Mary’s is the defending 5A-I state champion; Sunnysope the defending 4A-I champ; Santa Rita, the 4A-II runner-up; Estrella Foothills, the 3A state champ and Highland the 5A-I runner-up.

Chandler Hamilton senior Matt Helm, who returned to action two weeks ago following a six-week rehab from a knee injury, is likely to take a turn pitching this week to help the Huskies in their run for the postseason.

Helm had been used strictly as a designated hitter upon his return, but played the field as a third baseman last Friday.

Hamilton, currently 17th in the 5A-I power-point rankings, plays three games this week. The Huskies host Gilbert Mesquite Tuesday, Mesa Mountain View Wednesday and visit Mesquite on Friday.