There are some weekends that are tailor-made for scrapbooks, and this was one of those for Will Schufreider.
The Grayslake Central senior turned 18 on Saturday, and he went into the day with a very short list of birthday wishes, one of which he hoped to fulfill at the school’s baseball complex, only a stone’s throw from where he graduated the night before.
“All I wanted today was a sectional championship and an Emil’s hamburger,” he said.
Schufreider earned the former and, one could argue, thus earned the latter too. He pitched six shutout innings in the Rams’ 10-0 win against Lake Forest in the Class 3A Grayslake Central Sectional championship game.
“I actually woke up really sore today,” he said. “But now I’m still in disbelief. It’s a dream come true.”
Once the team’s trainers loosened up Schufreider’s stiff back, there was no question he was in control. He allowed just two hits, struck out five and walked one in a game that ended after six innings.
“I’ve never seen him warm up that well before. He was just so dialed in,” Grayslake Central catcher Parker Greenfield said. “He was very calm. I saw him sitting in the dugout when the starting lineups were getting called, and I could just tell that he was going to have a day.”
Being sharp in the bullpen doesn’t always mean success will follow on the mound. But Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen knew the adrenaline Schufreider had to confront was harnessed.
“I could tell from the first inning that he was locked in because he threw some great change-ups early,” Whalen said. “That’s a pitch that’s kind of hard to get a feel for, especially if you’re overhyped, and he did a great job.”
Schufreider said he recalled that at least three of his strikeouts came on change-ups, and he doesn’t hesitate in calling that his favorite pitch.
But it has been a long road for him to get the pitch to this point, starting in 13U ball, when he and his father, Bill, who played shortstop at Loras and coaches first base for the Rams, began tinkering with different ways to throw it.
“Every so often, we’ve fine-tuned it, and once we found what worked, we’ve rolled with it through high school,” Schufreider said. “We kept trying to move my fingers all over the ball, and we moved my thumb around a little bit. Now my thumb is completely right underneath the ball, so when I throw it, I can turn the door handle.”
Perfecting that pitch has produced two exemplary seasons for Schufreider and a lot of wins for the Rams (31-8), who advance to play Fenwick (17-16) in the Schaumburg Supersectional at Wintrust Field at 5 p.m. Monday one year after losing 1-0 to Crystal Lake South in the sectional semifinals with him on the mound.
Schufreider went 9-1 with an 0.85 ERA in 2022, striking out 62 in 46 innings and yielding just five earned runs. With numbers like those, it’s hard to believe his confidence came fully into bloom only this season.
“Last year, I was pitching a little timid and was scared throwing because I was scared of batters,” he said. “Now I’m not scared anymore, and I can throw my pitches and trust them and just have confidence.”
He showed that Saturday. Lake Forest (21-17) had base runners in four of the six innings, but they all reached with two outs.
Finding that level of success on the mound has boiled down to a simple premise for Schufreider: He trusts his pitches. That’s something Bill Schufreider hoped would happen as he struggled to sleep on the eve of his son’s 18th birthday.
“I know what he can do, but sometimes he gets a little too excited and overthrows and has a tough first inning,” Bill Schufreider said. “Once he got through that first inning, I knew he was going to be OK. He was trusting himself.”
Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.