Athlete of the Week: Schulze shined for 9/10 PNLL All-Star team

By Michael Bower

It didn’t take long for Peyton Schulze to pick up the game of baseball.

In fact, when his older brother was playing Little League, Peyton demanded he have a matching team jersey to wear while watching from the stands.

“We had to go buy a little uniform for whatever team his brother was on,” said Rick Schulze, Peyton’s dad. “He was always chasing his brother’s home run balls down.”

Peyton’s brother, Mason, has since moved on from baseball and has become a standout golfer for Poway High.

Mason, who will be a sophomore in the fall, helped the Titans win their first Palomar League title since 1999 last spring.

So, the baseball duties in the family have officially been passed over to Peyton.

“My brother inspired me to work hard and be a good hitter,” said Peyton, who turned 11 on June 8. “He was always a slugger like me, but my brother wasn’t really a pitcher. He was more of a first baseman and he could throw the ball really well. But he was definitely a home run hitter.”

Peyton, who primarily plays third base, has proved to be a home run hitter and a standout pitcher during this past Little League season. The Poway National star smashed three home runs as a 10-year-old playing at the Majors level with kids up to the age of 12.

“It was really exciting because the pitchers are all throwing really fast,” said Peyton, who will enter the fifth grade at Chaparral Elementary School in the fall. “I was just able to hit the ball.”

Schulze carried his solid bat into the 9/10-year-old all-star season and brought his ability to pitch. The right-hander, who did not pitch much during the regular season, dominated in nearly every outing during the District 31 All-Star Tournament.

He ended up tossing three complete games, the last one a 2-0 victory over Encinitas last week to force a winner-take-all showdown for the title. Schulze struck out four and allowed just three hits to earn the victory. He also drove in both runs for Poway National.

For his efforts, Schulze is the Toyota of Poway Athlete of the Week.

“I was a little rusty, but I just kept practicing pitching in the backyard with my dad,” he said. “It all came back quick. It was really exciting to throw a shutout because that was my first one.”

Schulze said he already has four pitches in his arsenal. He has three different versions of a fastball — four-seamer, two-seamer, cutter — and mixes in a changeup. He said the changeup was particularly working well in the game against Encinitas, but his favorite pitch is the four-seam fastball.

Poway National ended up falling just short of capturing the District 31 crown, but Schulze is excited about making another run in the tournament next year. For now, he will join his travel ball team, the San Diego Longhorns. He has one last tournament this weekend before moving to the 11U division.

“I am just going to keep on practicing,” he said. “I enjoy Little League, but it is nice to go back to travel ball.”