These are remarkable times for Mark Rogers.

Wednesday marked the last day of classes for the Mount Ararat High senior, who will graduate from the Topsham school on June 13.

There’s also the expectation Rogers will be a first-round selection in Monday’s amateur baseball draft – and with a full athletic scholarship to the University of Miami in his pocket Rogers already has a pretty decent Plan B.

If that’s not enough, Rogers has been named the 2004 Gatorade National High School Baseball Player of the Year.

“It’s been hectic,” said the 18-year-old Rogers, who is set to pitch in the Eagles’ Eastern Maine Class A quarterfinal against Hampden Academy on Thursday. “But at the same time it’s been very enjoyable. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound righthander, a resident of Orrs Island, is the first Maine high school athlete to earn national Gatorade player of the year honors in any sport, according to Mount Ararat athletic administrator Colin Roy.

“Mark is extremely well-centered, very humble and down to earth,” said Roy. “He’s aggressively gone after his goals, and things have fallen into place.”

Rogers, a two-time Maine Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, was told of the honor Wednesday evening during a dinner with his family and Gatorade representatives. A full school assembly and press conference was scheduled for Thursday morning, when Rogers will formally receive the award.

Other winners since the award’s inception in 1986 include Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield of the New York Yankees, Todd Van Poppel of the Cincinnati Reds, A.J. Hinch of the Philadelphia Phillies and Drew Henson, now with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

Rogers led Mount Ararat to its first Eastern A baseball championship last year, and last fall earned all-state honors while leading the Eagles to the state Class A soccer title. He also is an all-state hockey player who drew interest from several Division I programs.

As a senior, he has been a team captain in all three sports, as well as maintaining a 3.9 grade-point average.

A member of Baseball America’s 2004 Pre-Season All-American Team, Rogers is 7-0 with a 0.14 ERA this spring, allowing one earned run – a homer by Corey Tielinen of Oxford Hills in last Thursday’s Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference championship game won by the Eagles. He has yielded just seven hits in 49 innings while striking out 122 batters and walking 10. Opponents have hit .045 against him.

His season has included back-to-back 20 strikeout games, and his only no-decision was a scoreless performance against Lawrence of Fairfield in which he struck out 22. He left the game after nine innings and 128 pitches, and according to Baseball America, six of his pitches in the ninth inning were clocked at 96 mph.

“I worked a lot over the winter with [former University of Maine pitcher] Dale Plummer to develop a third pitch,” Rogers said. “I’ve got a changeup now to go with my fastball and curve, and it’s a pitch that’s been pretty effective for me this year.”

Mount Ararat is 17-1 overall this year, including 15-1 during the regular season to earn the No. 1 seed in Eastern A. The Eagles start six seniors, among them the entire starting pitching rotation of righthanders Rogers, Brandon Galarneau (6-1) and Ethan Ogilby (4-0).

Rogers, who plays shortstop when not pitching, is batting a team-best .578 from the No. 2 spot in the order with nine doubles, six triples, one home run, 29 RBIs and 30 runs scored. Led by Rogers, outfielder Andy Cantrell and first baseman Todd Strong, Mount Ararat has a team batting average of .330, 65 points better than a year ago.

“I think we’ve played a little better than I thought we would,” said Mount Ararat coach Craig Rogers, Mark’s father. “Our team batting average has really improved, and our pitching depth is strong with the three seniors.”

Mark Rogers has attracted dozens of scouts to his pitching starts, and they have liked what they have seen. Rogers is projected by Baseball America as the 13th overall pick in the first round of Monday’s draft – which would make him the first Mainer drafted in the first round directly out of high school.

“Twenty-six teams came to the house this winter to meet with myself and my family,” he said. “A lot of it was to educate us on major and minor league baseball.

“This spring I sat down with about every team to take personality tests and things like that. Lately there have been a lot of signability questions, some about money and the round I’d be picked, but a big question for them has been if I really want to play professional baseball.

“The answer is pretty simple: I want to play professional baseball as soon as possible.”