Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Oswego East grad Noah Schultz, in front of a big home crowd, makes White Sox debut: ‘A surreal experience’

Transcript

Oswego East grad Noah Schultz, in front of a big home crowd, makes White Sox debut: ‘A surreal experience’ · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Oswego East grad Noah Schultz, in front of a big
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: home crowd makes White Sox debut A surreal experience. Written
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: by Joshua Weld, this article is being read by an
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Noah Schultz was
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: a skinny fifteen year old barely into high school at
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Oswego East when the light came on to what lay
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: in store for his baseball future. His pitching coach, Mark
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Shehen suggested he play travel ball and set up a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: try out with the Candalosi Sparks. As Schultz throw forty
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: to fifty yards away, Dave Peyton from the Sparks walked
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: over to talk with Schultz's parents, Larry and Kim. Dave
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: says to me, I'll be honest, he's on the team.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Larry Schultz recalled, but you have to start thinking about
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the draft. We were just happy he made the travel team.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Dave said, he's on the team. He's going to be
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: recruited heavily, and he will be in the draft. Growing
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: almost a foot in two years in two to a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: six foot ten frame, Schultz indeed saw his college recruitment
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: take off overnight, and he committed to Vanderbilt. He was
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: drafted by the White Sox in the first round of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty two MLB Draft, and on Tuesday, almost
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: five years to the day of his varsity debut at
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Oswego East, Schultz made his MLB debut under the lights
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of Rape Field with the White Sox. It was incredible,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: just a surreal feeling to be out there, Schultz said.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It was awesome wearing jersey number twenty two, the same
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: number worn by another big lefty, ex Dodger star, Clayton Kershaw. Schultz,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: who grew up in a family of Dodger fans, got
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Kershaw's autograph as a kid in Milwaukee. Schultz fired to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: strike to Tampa's Yandy Diaz for his first big league pitch.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: When Schultz did, he become the third tallest pitcher in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: MLB history. Schultz ran into the adversity expected of a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: young rookie. In his first inning, two walks, a single,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and a squeeze bunt led to three rais runs, but
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: he got stronger as the game went on. Schultz notched
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: his first strikeout on a ninety eight mile per hour
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: fastball to get Johnny de Luca swinging to end the
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: first inning. He had a nice comeback one two three
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: second inning and wrung up Jonathan Oranda on a heater
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: at ninety six to start the third. Schultz got Diaz
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: on a grounder to end a scoreless fourth, and struck
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: out Aranda again to start the fifth, leaving to a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: loud ovation. A lot of things. I was proud of,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a lot of things to work on, Schultz said. I
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: was proud that I was able to bounce back after
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: that first inning, got ahead of hitters more. There were
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: definitely nerves in that first inning. Schultz allowed three earned
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: runs in four our innings while striking out four and
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: walking for in an eventual eight five Socks loss. I
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: thought it was overall really good, Socks manager Will Venable said, understandably,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: the first inning sped up on him a little bit.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: He wasn't in the zone like we saw later in
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the game. I thought he settled in nicely and was
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: able to command his pitches better. Schultz's debut was a
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: big deal for the twenty two year old who grew
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: up forty five miles or so from rape Field in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the Western Suburbs. It's a big deal for the Socks too.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: The former first round pick is the number one pitching
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: prospect in the Socks organization. He joined the Socks after
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: going three U with a one point twenty nine ERA,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: nineteen strikeouts and two walks in fourteen innings over three
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: games two starts for Charlotte this season. Chsn had a
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Noah Schultz cam following him around during his debut. Schultz's
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: left arm is a big part of the Socks rebuild hopes.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Noah Schultz obviously is a big part of our future.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Socks general manager Chris Getz said before the game. He's
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: been throwing really well for TRIPAA Charlotte. Last year he
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: had a knee issue that clearly was affecting him based
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: on his command and just the quality of stuff, and
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: it's very clear that that is behind him. Based on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: what we've seen so far and also in spring training.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The stuff is up, the command is there, multiple pitches
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: to be able to navigate lineups. Both sided hitters and
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: were proud of him and excited to watch his debut.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Schultz's hometown was excited to watch his debut too. Some
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: five hundred extra tickets were sold for friends and family
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: to watch Schultz in person. The entire Aswego East baseball
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: team was there to watch the high school's former pitcher
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and was shown on the scoreboard at one point. It
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: was awesome to see all of them out there. There
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: are no words to describe it, Schultz said. To see
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: the support from the guys, It's something I'll never forget.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: My assistant coach used to call him a ferrari because
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: of how rare he was. Oswego East coach Brian Schaeffer said,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: we all eventually knew he was a once in a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: lifetime type of talent. Larry Schultz said the last seventy
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: two hours has been crazy since he got the call
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: from Noah Saturday night that his son had got the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: call to the BIGS. The youngest of three children, when
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Noah started playing baseball as a kid, Larry said some
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: people didn't even know he had a son, only two girls.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Those two girls, Emily and Ashley, were both standout softball
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: players that went on to play in college at Stanford
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: and Northwestern. Games of backyard wiffle ball between siblings fueled
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Noah's competitive edge, one of three primary reasons their parents
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: put them in sports, along with physical fitness and being
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: part of a team, it was hard for Larry to
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: not feel a proud dad moment Tuesday. It's interesting, you're
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: always hopeful that he would get to a point like this,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Larry Schultz said, I have always tried to say if
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: he makes it, not when, because so many things can happen.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You try to prepare for the call. And how I
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: felt the last three days, it is ten times what
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I imagined what it would feel like. You think it
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: will be amazing, and oh my gosh, the opportunity. It
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: was one hundred times better.