Baseball: Vanderbilt recruit Noah Schultz sharp in varsity debut, Oswego East beats Waubonsie Valley in opener

AURORA – Noah Schultz dropped in an offspeed bender for a first-pitch strike, and nodded his head in approval.

He backed it up with a bead of a fastball strike, and a big grin.

Schultz provided plenty to smile about.

Oswego East’s big 6-foot-9 junior left-hander, a Vanderbilt recruit, made his long-awaited varsity baseball debut Thursday. It didn’t disappoint.

Schultz struck out 10 batters in four shutout innings, and Carter South had the big hit in a four-run Wolves’ six inning as Oswego East opened its season with a 6-3 win at Waubonsie Valley.

“It was a great feeling. I definitely missed it,” said Schultz, who hadn’t thrown in a high school game for almost two years, or in any game for almost six months. “I missed playing the game. I missed being out there.”

While Waubonsie was playing its third game of the week, this was Oswego East’s first game since June of 2019, with an entirely new group of guys since the 2020 season was canceled.

Schultz last threw in a sophomore game, as a freshman, before he had a fastball that touches close to 90 and a Division I scholarship.

South, a junior and Oswego East’s starting second baseman, last played in a freshman game.

“It was great, actually, being out there,” said South, 2-for-3 with two runs batted in from the No. 9 hole. “We’ve been waiting on this, been waking up early, everybody’s been at the 5 a.m. stuff since November. We’ve all been ready to go, itching to get on the field.”

South, like everyone else, looked forward to watching Schultz pitch.

Towering out from the mound, his lengthy brown hair flowing in the breeze, Schultz was in complete control. He worked a perfect first inning, handling two comebackers, and got an awkward swing on an inside fastball for his first varsity strikeout to lead off the second.

It was the start of nine straight outs by punchout, the only blemish Logan Gregorio’s one-out single in the second and Zack Stokes reaching on a passed ball on a swinging third strike in the fourth that resulted in a four-strikeout inning.

“Schultzy set the tone,” Oswego East coach Matt Engelhardt said. “That’s nice when you have an anchor on the hill that can set the tone. They were attacking the fastball and he did a great job mixing and kept them on their toes. That’s going to lead to that strikeout count. He did a great job locating multiple pitches and you can see the result.”

Schultz worked mainly fastballs that touches near 90 mph in the first inning, pounding the zone, pitching to contact. Later, he incorporated the offspeed, and got several awkward-looking swings on batters loading up for the heat.

“When I was warming up I felt good with the offspeed and I was confident in it today; one of the batters I just threw three or four straight offspeed, said Schultz, who didn’t walk a batter in the 63-pitch outing. “End of the second inning, beginning of the third I started to pick up my tempo and started cruising.”

Oswego East took a 2-0 lead on Jonas Gulbrandsen’s RBI double in the third that scored Camden Ruby (3-for-4, two runs, RBI), and Nick Caruso’s two-out bases loaded walk in the fifth. Waubonsie scratched across two tying runs in the fifth after Schultz had departed, but Oswego East answered in the sixth.

Joey Hansen drew a leadoff walk, Ryan Hudson reached on an infield single and Donavan Zielke was safe on a bunt to load the based with none out. It brought up South, who lined a two-run single to right to bring in two go-ahead runs.

“I thought coach was going to give me a squeeze, he said swing away, I saw fastball down the middle and said let’s take it over the second baseman’s head for a nice little single,” South said. “I know we have a lot of people who can challenge me, I’m just here to perform for the guys.”

Ruby followed with a single to make it 5-2, and eventually scored Oswego East’s sixth run on a balk.

“We took a shot in the mouth in the fourth or fifth, really nice with the bounce back,” Engelhardt said. “The bottom of the line set the tone. That was nice to see.

“It felt great to be out here today, it felt weird, all at the same time. Good to get a win.”