Not much sports talk, but this is worth a read

Wake-Up Call: Teammates stand behind Schuster - a lot
By JOEY JOHNSTON | The Tampa Tribune

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Good morning!

Mitchell High School left-hander Patrick Schuster pitched his fourth consecutive no-hitter — a Florida high school record — in Monday night's 5-0 victory against offensive-minded Pasco High. Here are some numbers to digest:

Schuster faced 25 batters. Pasco put the ball in play just six times — two groundouts, an attempted bunt neatly fielded by Schuster, two moderately deep fly balls to right field and one error by the shortstop. There was one walk and one hit batsman.

The rest were strikeouts — 17 of them — most with the batters either hopelessly waving at a 90-plus-mph fastball or frozen in place by an off-speed pitch.

That was the case on Schuster's 106th pitch, a slider taken by Pasco's Trejon Smith for a game-ending called strike three.

"The kid didn't even budge,'' Mitchell catcher Doug Burlett said. "When Patrick has it going like that, you don't have to do that much other than watch it happen.''

Ah, but sometimes that's a difficult job, too.

"Every time somebody makes contact, you're on the edge of your seat,'' Mitchell coach Scot Wilcox said. "At times, the other guys might be a little tight. Nobody wants to be the one [not to make a play]. It can get kind of anxious out there because you want it to happen so badly. But everybody on this team has been behind Patrick, making the plays when they needed to be made.''

Leading off the second inning, Pasco's Jorge Jaramillo hit a high bounder to Mitchell third baseman Joe Koehler, who was momentarily fooled, but leaped to glove it, then throw to first.

"I was kind of shocked,'' Koehler said. "Normally, I get short choppers. It hopped kind of funny on me. I made a late reaction. My heart skipped a beat for a second.''

In the fifth and seventh innings, Pasco's Brennan Allen made good contact with long fly balls down the right-field line. Both times, Mitchell right fielder Steve Brown was there for the play.

"You get a little nervous because you don't want to ruin it for Pat,'' Brown said. "It's kind of weird because when the ball is actually hit. It's almost startling. Mostly, it's strikeout after strikeout. You're just standing out there, watching strikeouts. But you've got to be ready because if they hit it to you, you've got to be there.''

Schuster, a prime target for June's amateur draft who already has signed a scholarship with the University of Florida, broke the state record of three consecutive no-hitters (Gonzalez Tate's Ben Webb in 1985 and Jefferson's Sam Militello in 1987). Now he's two behind the all-time national prep record.

How long can this continue? Stay tuned. Schuster will go for consecutive no-hitter No. 5 next Tuesday night in the Class 6A-District 7 tournament semifinals at Countryside High School.

"This is very, very rare,'' Burlett said. "You don't think he can keep doing this, then he pulls another one out. Amazing.''

"It's going to feel very strange when somebody gets a hit off him,'' Koehler said. "There's so much pressure, but he seems to be just loving the moment. Coming into tonight, I would've said it's almost impossible [to get another no-hitter], but he proved us wrong.''

Schuster, who surrendered his last hit March 24 (a double by Alonso's Ray Delphey), said he realistically didn't count on a fourth no-hitter.

"I walked in today saying, 'Everyone is going to be disappointed in me because I'm going to give up a hit,' " said Schuster, who has 60 strikeouts in 26 innings during his no-hit streak. "Look, it's going to happen one of these games. When it happens, I won't be disappointed. Hopefully, it's at the beginning of a game. What has happened so far, there's no way anybody could expect that. We're just going to keep on riding with it.''

So far, it has been the ride of Schuster's life — and all of his teammates are joining in.