Ash, Grayslake Central roll on

It was all about the ones for Grayslake Central’s No. 1.

Mark Ash, the Rams’ senior ace, didn’t exactly overpower Vernon Hills on Saturday afternoon. He recorded just 1 strikeout in the Class 3A sectional title game held at Grayslake Central High School.

But he sure did keep firm control of the game, allowing just 1 walk and 1 hit in leading the Rams to a 4-0 victory and their second supersectional appearance since 2009.

Ash has been in a stingy mood lately. In last week’s 4-1 regional final win over Notre Dame, he threw a 2-hitter.

“The last two outings that Mark’s had, those are about as dominant as you can get in the postseason,” Grayslake Central coach Troy Whalen said. “He had all of his pitches working. He moved the ball in, out, up, and down, and we played defense behind him.”

For Ash, this game was a bit personal. After all, he was the starting pitcher last year when Vernon Hills knocked off Grayslake Central 9-8 in the regional title game.

“For me, it was a little revenge,” said Ash, who is planning to pitch in college at Winona State in Minnesota. “This game was huge for me, because it was the last game at home, starting pitching, sectional final, against a team that beat me last time.

“(Vernon Hills catcher Chris) Marras hit a home run off me, a 3-run homer (last year). And I played with him in the summer (with Top Tier). He’s my buddy, but… needless to say, I was upset and firing to come back.”

Ash retired the first nine batters of the game before walking Crowley to lead off the fourth. Crowley’s walk and his line-drive single in the sixth produced the Cougars’ only two baserunners of the game.

With the wind blowing hard from left field, Ash coaxed a number of fly balls and his fielders made some nice plays to keep the bases clean.

“I don’t know if he’s normally a flyball pitcher or not, but he played to the conditions,” Vernon Hills coach Jay Czarnecki said. “The wind’s gusting in. How many flyballs did we hit? It was just, we couldn’t get out of that mode and that had to do with his pitch location and unfortunately, it wasn’t the day to hit flyballs.”

Grayslake Central, which improves to 30-9, advances to the North Central College supersectional in Naperville on Monday to take on Nazareth, a 7-4 winner over St. Joseph.

This is the fourth straight supersectional appearance for Nazareth, which finished fourth in the state last year. In 2009, the Rams knocked off Nazareth 9-8 in the supersectional to advance downstate.

“Now if we can hopefully take care of business on Monday, (Ash) can pitch again on Friday in Joliet (in the state semifinals),” Whalen said.

The Rams got all the runs they needed in the bottom of the first inning. Nick Hosford started it with a walk, Kristian Meehan and Sean Boban delivered RBI singles, and a third run scored on an errant throw.

Boban collected a second RBI single in the third, sending home Meehan to make it 4-0.

“(Ash) even said to me in the dugout, this 3-0 lead feels like it’s 6-0. It’s huge,” Meehan said. “Everything in the playoffs is magnified. Every mistake you make. Every great play you make.

“That’s one of the best games I’ve seen him pitch in a while. He was lights-out. He was hitting all of his spots. He was working ahead with the fastball. Right when you get ahead, you can start working curve balls and get them really off-balance.”