Yorkville senior, already a standout pitcher, emerged as two-way threat
Stephen Sewruk could count on the text every day he pitched.
It was sage advice from a man who knows.
“First pitch strike, first batter out,” said Sewruk, a recent Yorkville graduate. “Grandpa always tells me that. Try to get ahead of the count, don’t give them good pitches to hit. Stay focused.”
Grandpa never needed to worry about that last part.
With a quiet confidence and a creature of baseball’s routine, Sewruk was one of the area’s most consistent pitchers the last three years.
He carried that devotion to the plate, emerging as a two-way threat this spring.
Sewruk went 4-2 on the mound with a 1.08 WHIP, and 48 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings. The lefty Benedictine recruit tossed a no-hitter at DeKalb. He lost jut two games over three varsity seasons.
At the plate, Sewruk hit .394 with 43 hits and 23 runs batted in, both team-highs.
“We had great expectations for him as a pitcher,” Yorkville coach Scott Luken said, “but the offense he put up was spectacular. He really picked up the slack.”
For these achievements Stephen Sewruk is the Record/Ledger Player of the Year.
Sewruk is not a big ego guy, and can be soft spoken. He was, though, clearly not happy when Luken told him he’d be a pitcher-only as a sophomore. Sewruk understood he had to grow as a hitter, and get bigger and stronger. He lifted five days a week, hit for four days.
Yorkville assistant Scott Malinowski helped with Sewruk’s mental approach, and also helped tweak his open stance to get square to the pitcher.
By Opening Day this spring, Sewruk was hitting in the No. 2 hole.
“I was expecting to hit sixth, didn’t even look at the top of the order and got kind of confused,” Sewruk admitted. “Coach Luken came up to me later in the year and told me ‘Thanks for not making me look stupid.’”
Luken noticed a player who bought into the routine. From the third base box he could see the deep breaths Sewruk took after each pitch, the little things he carried to each at bat.
“He got the most out of every at bat he had,” Luken said.
It shouldn’t surprise.
Sewruk first picked up a baseball when he could barely walk. It was a fast love. His uncle Matt St. John is seventh on Aurora University’s all-time hit list. His grandfather, who Stephen is named after, played at Northern Iowa.
“[Stephen and his grandfather] have this psychic connection that I don’t know how it works,” said Kerry Sewruk, Stephen’s mom. “My dad whispers something and it happens.”
Stephen’s older brother, Nick, was Yorkville’s Pitcher of the Year his junior and senior years.
Luken, whose known Stephen since he was in fourth grade, told Nick and the parents he thought Stephen would be better.
He lived up to those big expectations. As a junior Sewruk went 8-0 with a 1.42 ERA and 70 strikeouts, and was the winning pitcher when Yorkville won its first Class 4A regional.
“We knew every time he was on the mound we’d be in the ballgame,” Luken said. “He’s just a student of the game in terms of knowing not just how to pitch, but how to pitch to specific hitters and being able to locate.”
It was all part of the process honed in the backyard with his uncle, grandma and older brother, whose own success motivated Sewruk.
It carried to Sewruk’s routine of getting a good breakfast on game days, putting on his headphones and getting in a zone before he leaves the house.
“Every day I compete I want to do the best I can do,” said Sewruk, who hopes to coach one day. “Give my team a chance to win.”