Noah Schultz was a skinny 15-year-old barely into high school at Oswego East when the light came on to what lay in store for his baseball future.

His pitching coach, Mark Sheehan, suggested he play travel ball, and set up a tryout with the Cangelosi Sparks. As Schultz threw 40-50 yards away, Dave Payton from the Sparks walked over to talk with Schultz’s parents, Larry and Kim.

“Dave says to me, ‘I’ll be honest, he’s on the team,’” Larry Schultz recalled, “‘but you have to start thinking about the draft.’ We were just happy he made the travel team. Dave said ‘he’s on the team, he’s going to be recruited heavily, and he will be in the draft.’”

Growing almost a foot in two years into a 6-foot-10 frame, Schultz indeed saw his college recruitment take off overnight, and he committed to Vanderbilt. He was drafted by the White Sox in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

And on Tuesday, almost five years to the day of his varsity debut at Oswego East, Schultz made his MLB debut under the lights of Rate Field with the White Sox.

“It was incredible, just a surreal feeling to be out there,” Schultz said. “It was awesome.”

Wearing jersey No. 22, the same number worn by another big lefty, ex-Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw (Schultz, who grew up in a family of Dodger fans, got Kershaw’s autograph as a kid in Milwaukee), Schultz fired a strike to Tampa’s Yandy Diaz for his first big-league pitch.

When Schultz did he became the third-tallest pitcher in MLB history.

Schultz ran into the adversity expected of a young rookie in his first inning. Two walks, a single and a squeeze bunt led to three Rays runs.

But he got stronger as the game went on.

Schultz notched his first strikeout on a 98 mile per hour fastball to get Jonny DeLuca swinging to end the first inning.

He had a nice comeback 1-2-3 second inning, and rung up Jonathan Aranda on a heater at 96 to start the third. Schultz got Diaz on a grounder to end a scoreless fourth and struck out Aranda again to start the fifth, leaving to a loud ovation.

“A lot of things I was proud of, a lot of things to work on,” Schultz said. “I was proud that I was able to bounce back after that first inning, got ahead of hitters more. There were definitely nerves in that first inning.”

Schultz allowed three earned runs in 4⅓ innings, while striking out four and walking four in an eventual 8-5 Sox loss.

“I thought it was overall really good,” Sox manager Will Venable said. “Understandably the first inning sped up on him a little bit, he wasn’t in the zone like we saw later in the game. I thought he settled in nicely and was able to command his pitches better.”

Schultz’s debut was a big deal for the 22-year-old who grew up 45 miles or so from Rate Field in the western suburbs.

It’s a big deal for the Sox, too.

The former first-round pick is the No. 1 pitching prospect, in the Sox organization. He joined the Sox after going 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA, 19 strikeouts and two walks in 14 innings over three games (two starts) for Charlotte this season. CHSN had a Noah Schultz cam following him around during his debut.

Schultz’s left arm is a big part of the Sox rebuild hopes.

“Noah Schultz obviously is a big part of our future,” Sox general manager Chris Getz said before the game. “He’s been throwing really well (for Triple-A) Charlotte. Last year he had a knee issue that clearly was affecting him based on his command and just the quality of stuff, and it’s very clear that that is behind him based on what we’ve seen so far and also in spring training.

“The stuff is up. The command is there, multiple pitches to be able to navigate lineups, both sided hitters. And we’re proud of him and excited to watch his debut.”

Schultz’s hometown was excited to watch his debut, too.

Some 500 extra tickets were sold for “friends and family” to watch Schultz in person. The entire Oswego East baseball team was there to watch the high school’s former pitcher, and was shown on the scoreboard at one point.

“It was awesome to see all of them out there. There are no words to describe it,” Schultz said. “To see the support from the guys, it’s something I’ll never forget.”

“My assistant coach used to call him a Ferrari because of how rare he was,” Oswego East coach Brian Schaeffer said. “We all eventually knew he was a once-in-a-lifetime type of talent.”

Larry Schultz said the last 72 hours “has been crazy” since he got the call from Noah Saturday night that his son had got the call to the bigs.

The youngest of three children, when Noah started playing baseball as a kid Larry said some people didn’t even know he had a son, only two girls. Those two girls, Emily and Ashley, were both standout softball players that went on to play in college at Stanford and Northwestern.

Games of backyard Wiffle ball between siblings fueled Noah’s competitive edge, one of three primary reasons their parents put them in sports, along with physical fitness and being part of a team.

It was hard for Larry to not feel a proud dad moment Tuesday.

“It’s interesting, you’re always hopeful that he would get to a point like this,” Larry Schultz said. “I have always tried to say if he makes it, not when, because so many things can happen.

“You try to prepare for the call and how I felt the last three days. It is 10 times what I imagined what it would feel like. You think it will be amazing and oh my gosh, the opportunity, it was 100 times better.”