Blair-Taylor’s ‘bulldog on the mound’ Shramek ready for senior encore

Blair-Taylor’s Tavian Shramek took the area by storm last spring, emerging as one of the state’s most dominant pitchers for a Wildcats team that went 19-4 and shared the Dairyland Conference title.

What Shramek accomplished during his junior season for Blair-Taylor looks like something straight out of a video game: an 11-0 record, an infinitesimal 0.11 ERA and 151 strikeouts against 222 batters faced.

In 61 innings of work, he surrendered just one total run, 15 hits, 13 walks and eight hit batters en route to a third-team all-state honor.

Shramek admits that even he himself did not foresee that level of dominance going into last spring.

“I did not think it was attainable,” Shramek said. “I was not expecting that much success, but hard work pays off. I just kept getting better — kept throwing strikes and doing my thing.”

The path to becoming one of the state’s top pitchers began back in middle school, when Tavian took up pitching at the suggestion of his dad.

“I got to give credit to my dad,” Tavian said. “He saw something in me that probably no one else really saw and he kept pushing me to be better, keep throwing strikes. And he’s been working with me ever since like fifth or sixth grade.”

His dad, Justin Shramek, is a Blair-Taylor alum himself and a current assistant coach for the Wildcat baseball team. He credits Tavian’s success as a pitcher to his unique delivery that can deceive hitters (Tavian describes his arm slot as being “between sidearm and three-quarter”) and his ability to consistently pepper the strike zone.

“He’s kind of got a funky delivery. It’s more of a low, three-quarter almost sidearm. In my mind, I wanted to change it because I was thinking arm problems. But he’s never ever complained about arm problems, so I never changed it,” Justin said. “It kind of grew on him and it grew into something special. He’s always been a strike thrower. I don’t know if I’ve seen a more accurate kid. He lives around the plate.”

Tavian’s pitch arsenal includes a two-seam fastball, a slider and a changeup. Both Justin and Blair-Taylor head coach Jesse Lien highlighted the movement all his pitches have as a key in his success. Justin also noted that he’s trying to develop a true curveball and a cutter to add a couple pitches with more vertical break since his existing repertoire relies largely on horizontal movement.

According to Justin, Tavian’s fastball was clocking in around 88 miles per hour at the end of last summer and, though he hasn’t broken out the radar gun on him yet this spring, he suspects he might be topping 90 now with continuing room for growth as he adds more muscle.

Tavian has already committed to play for Madison Area Technical College next year since they have a track record of developing players for two years and then serving as a launching pad to Division I programs. Shramek hopes to follow a similar route and see just how far his pitching career can go at the college level and perhaps beyond.

For the time being, his focus is on the upcoming spring season with the Wildcats, who were ranked No. 1 in Division 4 in the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association preseason poll.

“He has really come to being what you would call a bulldog on the mound. He’s going to take the ball and he’s going to get them innings,” Lien said. “For a coach, that’s one part of the equation you don’t have to worry about that game because he’s going to take care of what he has to do, and you can deal with the other stuff.”

There will be no element of surprise for Shramek and the Wildcats this year, but he views the additional expectations as a cause for excitement rather than a burden. There is also a driving desire to continue to put baseball on the map in a bigger way at Blair-Taylor — a school more associated with basketball and softball success.

Shramek is hopeful that he and his teammates can repeat as Dairyland champions and put together an even deeper postseason run. And along the way, he’ll be cherishing every last game in his final months as a Wildcat.

“It’s really exciting that we finally get baseball back up and going again. We’ve got a good team,” Tavian said. “I’m going to soak it in. I’m going to try to have as much fun as I can because we’ve got a great group of guys.”