Pat Stover is a baseball player.

He looks the part, filling out his Rocklin High School jersey as if he were a bouncer with a bat, a 6-foot-5 pillar with clout.

The senior slugger has a scholarship waiting for him at Santa Clara – national champion Fresno State also pursued him – and through his first two games of this young season, Stover has been studied and scrutinized by an army of major league scouts who wear wraparound shades and stern expressions. Shortly after Stover's June graduation, his first paycheck may be as a freshly drafted prospect.

It's also basketball season, for one more game, and Stover will be there as the rock of stability for the Thunder.

Rocklin's star player, UCLA-bound recruit Brendan Lane, deems Stover "the heart and soul of our team" and a primary reason the Thunder is in the California Interscholastic Federation boys state Division II championship game Friday night at Arco Arena against Eisenhower of Rialto.

Stover's heart is in baseball – the outfielder hit .413 with a .725 slugging percentage in 2008 – but for 32 more minutes, his passion is doing the grunt work in high-tops. Rebounding. Setting screens. Making free throws in a pinch. Leadership. The forward averages 8.5 points and 6.8 rebounds. He leads the Thunder with 53 steals.

It's no wonder Stover, a three-year basketball starter who grew up idolizing older brother Matt (a three-year anchor for Rocklin earlier this decade now pursuing a firefighting career), sat in solitude in an Arco Arena tunnel after his team beat St. Francis of Mountain View in the Northern California Division II title game Saturday and savored the championship plaque and moment.

"It'll be the last time I play basketball, but it's a great way to go out, and I have no problem with that," Stover said. "My love is for baseball, but I can't live without basketball."

Funny he mentions that. Stover said he couldn't bear the idea of playing just one sport in high school, even in an era of specialization. But the better he became in baseball – and the more he became a prospect – some scouts suggested he was wasting time dabbling in another sport.

Stover wouldn't hear of it, of course.

"Those who don't play more than one sport are really missing out," he said.

Stover never considered quitting basketball – or even slowing down on a fast break – when his lungs felt as if they were on fire. There were initial concerns he had asthma-related problems a year ago. A number of treatments didn't improve matters.

In December, his dentist located the problem: enlarged tonsils that could make breathing a chore. Stover had two options. Surgery right away and miss nearly three weeks of action for one of the state's top teams, or gut it out and wait until the summer.

He is gutting it out.

"I couldn't stand missing games and letting my team down," Stover said. "I don't know what I'd do in the hospital. It's relief knowing I don't have asthma. I just have to deal with some discomfort."

Still, for as durable and resilient as he is, Stover occasionally has waved to basketball coach Steve Taylor for a breather, his tonsils so swollen his airway becomes blocked.

"I always go as hard as I can, and I only come out when I feel like I am on fire," Stover said.

Said Taylor: "Pat hits a wall of fatigue, comes out, needs a minute and a half or two and is ready to go. The kid just pushes himself to the max."

To the max in everything he does. Stover is a 3.7 grade-point average student. His courses include Spanish III, economics, Advanced Placement statistics, English and … broadcasting.

Yes, that's Stover's chipper voice on the morning campus TV announcements with the news of the moment – and a firm reminder that there's a basketball game requiring an avalanche of student attendance at Arco.

Taylor said Stover is a difference maker, in everything he does. The only two regular-season games the Thunder lost last season, Stover missed because of illness.

"Every great team has a player like Pat," Taylor said. "Look at the old Chicago Bulls team and Horace Grant. Or Kurt Rambis with the old Lakers teams. Pat's completely unselfish. He does the things you have to have that aren't glamorous.

"He's the kind of guy here that some day someone will say, 'Hey, you remind me of Pat Stover,' and that will be a great compliment."

It was Stover who a year ago made two late free throws to secure the Sac-Joaquin Section championship over Fairfield at Arco Arena. Earlier this postseason, Stover's short jumper gave Rocklin all the breathing room it needed to down Fairfield – again – in the section final.

"That's one of those kids who takes pride in outworking people," Fairfield coach Eddie Wilson said. "(Stover) finds a way to make a play."

Explained the modest Stover: "That's my role, the little things to help us go."

Call The Bee's Joe Davidson, (916) 321-1280.