Oswego East's Schulz back on the mound

Updated: April 13, 2011 3:34PM

In the summer heat, Matt Schulz would sit in the Oswego East dugout, his right arm first in a sling, then a brace. Game after game, he cheered for teammates in contests he couldn't affect.

He did have an effect, however.

Despite not being able to participate in any kind of baseball activity since last April, his teammates voted him captain. This despite not having any idea if their would-be ace would be able to pitch at all this season following Tommy John surgery last May 27.

"I love the guys on the team. They're my best friends, and just being around them, the field, the game, fixing the field or being in the dugout, that's what I love to do," Schultz said.

Fortunately for the Wolves - and perhaps unbelievably for Schultz - he is once again contributing on the mound. The 6-foot-3, 205-pound right-hander is able to throw 45 pitches per outing this spring and is hoping to be up to 85 - or a complete game by his estimation - by the summer.

"The amazing thing was how quickly they had him going through his rehab stuff and how quickly it seems he's recovered," Wolves coach Jim Vera said.

After a 118-pitch start against Plainfield North last April, Schultz felt discomfort in his elbow. Initially diagnosed as tendinitis, the pain returned after a two-week rest. An MRI revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

It was a surprise for Schultz, who did not throw a curve ball until he was a freshman. The culprit was too many pitches before his body was ready to handle the workload.

"I was probably throwing a hundred pitches since I was 13, 14 years old," said Schultz, who has been told his mechanics are solid. "It was never a problem. My arm could always handle it. I was just throwing too many pitches and put unnecessary strain on my elbow."

Schultz's surgeon was Dr. Anthony Romeo of Rush University Medical Center, the same doctor who repaired Chicago White Sox starter Jake Peavy's torn right latissimus dorsi tendon.

Romeo, head of shoulder and elbow surgery at Rush and a White Sox team doctor, has gained notoriety for a new way of performing the surgery which allows for a quicker recovery.

Schultz was throwing a mere three months after the operation.

Schultz said he's learning to better maximize his pitch counts and not always go for the strikeout, but Vera admitted there is an air about the righty whenever he's called upon to throw.

"It's a different dynamic when he's pitching. You can see it in the kids," Vera said. "That's nothing against our other pitchers, but it's just different."

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