They have been playing baseball at Portsmouth High for more than four decades, so it’s not easy for a Patriots baseball team to register a school first.

But then national rankings never come easily.

Last week, for the first time in school history, a Portsmouth baseball team earned a national ranking when the Patriots were named to the 45th spot in Baseball America’s bi-weekly Top 50 national high school poll.

Not only does the Baseball America staff consider Portsmouth one of the top 50 teams in the country, but it also thinks the Patriots are the best high school team in New England. The Patriots, the only undefeated team in the R.I. Interscholastic League, are one of only two New England teams that earned a spot in the top 50. The other one — Waterford, Conn. — was ranked 48th.

Katy High of Texas, which was 32-3 as of May 12, was ranked No. 1 in the country.

Patriots are titlists

Speaking of Portsmouth, the Patriots clinched the Division I-East regular-season title yesterday as they improved their record to 15-0 with a 7-5 victory over East Providence. The Patriots are at least four games ahead of every other team in the division with only three regular-season contests remaining.

It’s a different story in the other three Division I subdivisions, however.

More and more, it looks like next Friday’s final day of the regular season will feature first-place showdowns in the Division I-West, South and North circuits.

Cranston West, whose 14-1 slate is the second-best Division I record in the state, holds a one-game lead over Hendricken in the race for the I-West lead. The Falcons and Hawks will stage their second meeting of the season next Friday at Hendricken. Cranston West, the defending state champion, posted a 1-0 win in the first meeting last month.

South Kingstown’s victory over Chariho yesterday upped the Rebels’ league record to 12-3 and pulled them into a first-place tie with North Kingstown. Both the Skippers and Rebels have two games early next week before meeting next Friday at North Kingstown’s Lischio Field.

Lincoln held a one-game lead over St. Raphael going into yesterday’s action. The Saints and Lions will close out the regular season against each other next Friday.

Sanchez pitching strong

Last week, after his team posted a 2-0 Division II victory over Juanita Sanchez, Mt. Hope coach Gregg Burke said his Huskies were having “a hard time catching up” with hard-throwing Sanchez pitcher Angel Beltre.

Apparently, the Huskies aren’t the only team having problems getting solid metal on Beltre’s pitches. After losing to Mt. Hope despite striking out 14, Beltre struck out 12 in a 3-2 victory over Exeter-West Greenwich earlier this week.

Beltre isn’t the only Sanchez pitcher giving Division II opponents problems. On Tuesday, the Cavaliers’ Geraldo Valerio held II-South leader Central to six hits en route to an 8-3 victory.

Central back in pack

Tuesday’s loss was Central’s first setback of the season to one of the other four Providence public schools in Division II-South — Mount Pleasant, Classical, Sanchez and Hope.

Central has a substantial lead in the race for the mythical Providence city championship with a 5-1 record against its Providence neighbors with two games remaining.

But Central’s main objective is capturing the regular-season II-South title, and the Sanchez loss dropped the Knights back into a three-way tie in the loss column with Prout and Mt. Hope for the subdivision lead. The Knights still lead the division with a 13-3 mark, but Prout was only a half-game back, at 12-3, and Mt. Hope was 11-3 going into yesterday’s action.

Mount-Broncos showdown

Both the top seed for the 16-game Division II playoffs and the regular-season Division II –North title could be at stake Thursday when Mount St. Charles and Burrillville meet in Burrillville. The Mounties and Broncos are the top two teams in II-North and have the two best records in the entire Division II circuit, at 14-1 and 12-2, respectively.

jgillool@projo.com