The baseball career of Lemont’s Shea Glotzbach started in a low place.
His basement.
His father, Ted, played baseball at Glenbard West and then Benedictine in Kansas. Ted wanted to get Shea involved in the sport as soon as possible, so Ted had Shea playing whiffle ball at age 3.
“My dad played a lot and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps,” said Shea, who has grown into a 6-foot-4 pitcher. “He got things going really early, just letting me bat the ball in the basement.
“It was just whiffle balls, but I was also throwing the ball around and getting a feel for the game.”
Glotzbach showed off his feel for the game Wednesday afternoon.
The junior right-hander had the best outing of his varsity career, throwing six shutout innings for Lemont in a 4-0 victory over Mount Carmel in a Do It For Stevie Tournament first-round game.
Glotzbach gave up just four hits and struck out nine for Lemont (5-4), including seven strikeouts in his last three innings. His run support came in the fifth inning when Max Michalak broke up a scoreless tie with a bases-loaded, two-run double and Brett Tucker singled home two more runs.
Kolin Adams paced Mount Carmel (6-6) with two hits. Sophomore pitcher Jake Matise gave up one earned run in five innings, striking out eight.
Glotzbach (2-1), meanwhile, shut down the Caravan for his first win as a starter. It helped Lemont advance to the second round of the 16-team tournament, which will take place in mid-May,
“He picked a great time to have his best day, that’s for sure,” Lemont coach Brian Storako said of Glotzbach. “We’ve been waiting for our guys to put it together, and hopefully, this will springboard us off.
“He threw great, and we always knew he had it in him. He just needed to get that confidence, and hopefully, he can build off of it.”
Michalak was impressed with Goltzbach.
“What an outing,” Michalak said. “It was insane. It was really good. That was really exciting to see him go out and pound the zone.”
On the flip side, Goltzbach has been excited to see Michalak pound the ball.
Michalak picked up a walk-off single March 16 in a come-from-behind 9-8 win over Sandburg to give Glotzbach the win in relief. Michalak’s big double to right-center Wednesday helped make Glotzbach a winner again.
“He struggled at the beginning of the game,” Glotzbach said of Michalak. “But he came through in a clutch time.”
Michalak experienced rough sledding against Matise until that final at-bat.
“I struck out the first two times against him and I had two strikes on me,” Michalak said. “I just tried to put the ball in play and not do too much. I was just trying to put our team in a place to win.
“I saw something close to the zone and swung and made contact. It felt good.”
Glotzbach, who also plays basketball at Lemont, has the unusual distinction of pitching with his right hand but batting and shooting the basketball with his left.
“I have no idea how that happened,” he said. “It’s pretty weird.”
While he feels his future is in baseball, he said he hasn’t been attracting college attention just yet. But a couple of big high school and travel seasons could change that.
He definitely wants to play the sport he loves as long as he can.
“I like the competitiveness of baseball and how it can be a one-on-one game, especially when you are pitching,” Glotzbach said. “It’s just satisfying to do well and succeed.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
