Portsmouth High baseball coach Tim Hopley does not mess with a streak. On match days, he eats a steak and cheese sandwich for lunch in the same booth at Darleen's Sub and Pizza in Portsmouth. For the past seventy five games,

his Clippers have tasted victory.

With a win against Pembroke Academy, Portsmouth can make a national high school record, passing the mark set by Homer, Mich., in 2005.

Hopley's match-day lunch ritual is not his only good-luck regimen. As long as the streak has been going on, he has not worn a jacket. That can be dodgy in what passes for spring in New Hampshire. But the Clippers' biggest constant in winning 3 successive state Division II titles and going 12-0 this season is good pitching.

"Our pitching has been the one thing that, on a match-to-match basis, has led us," Hopley said. "This year, it has been Keegan Taylor, who is pledged to Northeastern on a baseball scholarship. Past year, it was Nate Jones, who is one of Wake Forest's top pitchers as a freshman, and the year before that, we were talking about Ben Hart, who is at (Massachusetts) or Tim Welch, who is at Bowdoin (in Brunswick, Maine)."

Hopley said his players have not been fazed by the attention the streak has attracted. One reason is that 5 of them also were on the Portsmouth team that reached the 2006 Little League World Series and advanced to the semifinals of the United States bracket.

The Clippers have had various close calls this year. Three pitches into a match against rival St. Thomas Aquinas (Dover), they trailed 3-0 but won 4-3. Past week they again trailed 3-0 early to Souhegan (Amherst) yet won 9-3. Monday, they required a big outing by Taylor (nine strikeouts and two hits in five innings) to beat Sanborn Regional (Kingston) 2-0.

Hopley said his beliefs relax him, but they also benefit his players.

Image official credit website:http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110520-SPORTS-105200403