HART PITCHER HAS RIGHT STUFF.

Byline: GERRY GITTELSON

The high school baseball season begins this week, and if Hart's Tyler Fick has the huge season many expect, he could be an early pick in June's Major League Draft.

The carrot-topped left-hander, a 6-foot-2 pitcher/right-fielder, throws a 90 mph fastball and hits 400-foot home runs. As a junior, he finished 9-3 - including four playoff victories - with a 2.19 ERA and 94 strikeouts in 73 innings. He also hit two home runs with a team-high 25 RBI to lead Hart to the Southern Section Div. II semifinals.

Fick has committed to Cal State Northridge, but don't be surprised if he makes the jump to pro baseball. The kid can really play, and he tends to rise to the occasion in big games - a desirable trait.

Teammates Matt Valaika (shortstop) and Tyler Lyon (pitcher) also are among the Foothill League's top players, along with Saugus pitcher/first baseman Thomas Milone, Valencia shortstop Casey Mulligan and Canyon center fielder Johnny Hay.

Valaika, also a top soccer player - he set a Hart single-season record for goals scored this season - is following in the footsteps of his brother, Chris, a Hart baseball standout two years ago who is the starting shortstop for UC Santa Barbara. The younger Valaika is coming off a .400 season, and he's shown improved power during the offseason.

Lyon won four games last year as a sophomore, and he's grown to 6-6 1/2 with improved velocity on his fastball. He's also a top football quarterback who passed for more than 3,000 yards last season.

Milone, a 6-1 senior, set Saugus single-season records for home runs and RBI last year. He's also a top left-handed pitcher who helped Saugus to its most successful season in many years last year.

Mulligan, a junior, broke into the starting lineup as a freshman two years ago. He came through with a solid performance in his first full year as a sophomore last season, gaining second-team all-league honors. He was expected to do more, and after an impressive offseason campaign, Mulligan is expected to come through with big numbers this year.

Hay, also a junior, is an excellent all-around player and, perhaps, the league's purest hitter. He combines speed with home run power, and coach Chuck Crim, a former major-leaguer, said Hay has the best swing he's ever seen for a prep player. Hay, a second-team all-league selection last season, wasn't 100 percent for much of the season because of a chronic bad back. If he remains healthy, watch out.

--Valaika and Canyon's Michael Clegg have been selected Foothill League Co-Players of the Year in boys' soccer, and Canyon's Shannon Omahen is the girls' Player of the Year.

Other boys' first-team selections include Hart's Jose Esquivel, Daniel Durando, Fabrice Gautrat and Juan Hernandez; Canyon's Shane Anderson, Matt McManus and Jared White; and Saugus' Shaun Pratt and Matt Wright.

Other girls' first-teamers include Valencia's MacKenzie Bear, Kierra Scalercio and Kyle Schnurr; Canyon's Nini Loucks, Bree Caceres, Jeina Walker and Alexia Zatarian; Saugus' Betsy Kayle, Jenette Lorme and Dani Marin; and Hart's Sarina Coutin.

--Hart's spring football workouts don't figure to be too eventful this season because the Indians' returning quarterbacks from varsity, junior varsity and freshman levels - Lyon, Alex Pettee and B.R. Holbrook - are busy playing baseball.

--Here's a novel idea: Why not pay high school coaches $500 bonuses for every playoff victory? I bet that would put a fire under some of their behinds.