Pitcher Blossoms at Desert School in Senior Season

In these days of $2.50-a-gallon gas prices, unfixed potholes and never-ending traffic jams, it takes lots of motivation to go watch China McCarney pitch and hit.

He lives in what he affectionately calls “the boonies,” the rolling desert hills of Agua Dulce, a town between Canyon Country and Palmdale off Highway 14.

Deer graze near his house and howling coyotes can be heard at night.

“You can’t walk to a movie or store,” he said. “You have to go 25 minutes to go somewhere exciting.”

He attends Vasquez High in Acton, a former mining town known for its old west ties and rural atmosphere.

Professional and college baseball scouts have been running up their expense bills following the 6-foot-2, 160-pound right-hander in his senior season.

With Vasquez (18-4) playing a freelance schedule, McCarney has been tested on rare occasions. He has a 6-1 record with 90 strikeouts in 46 innings and is batting .626 with 57 hits.

He throws his fastball close to 90 mph and it has been clocked as high as 94 mph.

“What’s beautiful is his command,” Coach Bob James said.

James was a first-round draft choice out of Tujunga Verdugo Hills High in 1976. Throwing strikes wasn’t his forte. McCarney is following a different path.

“You see it all the time, teams getting in trouble with walks,” McCarney said. “It will kill you at any level of baseball.”

McCarney has lived his entire life in Agua Dulce, enjoying the small-town environment.

“Slowly, kids started dispersing to the Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita Valley,” he said. “I had no desire to leave. We’re not a whole world away from Los Angeles. We can hear the news and go when we want.”

McCarney’s given first name is Ryan, but he picked up China as his nickname when he had difficulty pronouncing the word “champion” as a 2-year-old.

There was a King Kong doll that would raise its arms and grunt, “Ah.”

“He tried to say champion with his arms up in the air and one of the words I used for the ch sound was China,” his father, John, said. “He started running around the house, ‘Ah, China.’ ”

McCarney said he hated his nickname when he was young because people teased him. But as he got older, he found that China gave him immediate name recognition for baseball.

“Now it’s awesome,” he said.

McCarney’s maturity on and off the field is an asset. He could be drafted next month, but he also signed with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

He always keeps his cool, as demonstrated by his reaction to comments on a baseball website earlier this year.

Someone posted a message criticizing Vasquez and its pitchers, causing McCarney to respond, “Dude, chill. Don’t go Steinbrenner on me. It’s all fun.”

Of course, if the New York Yankees draft McCarney, he might have some apologizing to do to the owner.

For now, McCarney has no complaints. He understands the skepticism some might have about his statistics.

He knows, in time, he’ll be able to prove his skills to a wider audience.

“It’s hard to get recognition, but this year has been fun,” he said. “You do what you can do and work with what you’re given.”

Vasquez, which opens the Southern Section Division VI playoffs Thursday as the No. 2-seeded team, has another top player in senior Curtis Leavitt, who’s batting .620.

There’s lots of sagebrush around Vasquez and probably rattlesnakes too, but watching McCarney perform is worth the trip.