NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla.  How long will Patrick Schuster’s luck last? It is a question his mother, Sharon, has worried about since well before Schuster, a senior at Mitchell High School near Tampa, pitched the first of his four consecutive no-hitters on April 3.

There is so much that is out of the left-handed Schuster’s control, even though he has a despot’s command of his pitches. It is never far from his mind that on any given day  maybe even Tuesday, when the Mitchell Mustangs open the 6A playoffs  an opponent, in desperation, can poke his aluminum bat at one of Schuster’s 90-mile-an-hour fastballs and snap the streak with a ping heard ’round Pasco County.

Schuster, 18, has struck out 60 during his state-record string of no-hitters. In addition to his fastball, he has a nasty slider and curve, each of which he trusts enough to throw on 3-2 counts.

With his gangly frame and gossamer goatee, Schuster calls to mind the Shaggy character in the “Scooby-Doo” cartoons. He turns into a pit bull on the mound, chasing hitters off the plate like his favorite major leaguer, the Tampa Bay Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir, whose aggressiveness Schuster admires.