Baseball: Howe's no-hitter, Zellmer's blast power Prospect to sectional

Ryan Howe summoned his best pitching performance of the season in a key spot for Prospect.

In Monday morning's regional final against host Glenbrook North, Howe tossed a complete-game no-hitter as the Knights won 3-0.

Grant Zellmer produced a 3-run homer in the first inning before Howe took over.

"Zellmer got us out of the gate early with the 3-run homer," said Prospect coach Ross Giusti. "I think that took some of the pressure off of Ryan going into the bottom of the first."

Zellmer's homer scored Grant Whitebloom and Trevor Engquist.

Whitebloom finished with 2 hits, and Richie Baszek, Howe and Travis Gates also had hits.

Prospect (21-11) advances to a 4:30 p.m. Wednesday matchup in the Class 4A sectional semifinals at Stevenson against Warren (28-10), the top sectional seed. The Thursday semifinal in that sectional will include Mundelein against Palatine regional winner Lake Forest.

Howe's main asset against Glenbrook North was control.

Of the 75 pitches the sophomore tossed, 49 were strikes. He struck out one and walked one, got 5 flyball outs and 15 groundball outs.

And he threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 25 hitters he faced.

According to Giusti, the no-hitter was a victory for patience and determination.

"It has been great to see Howe come on strong at the end of the year," Giusti said. "He had a tender arm early in the season, so we held him back until we felt he was ready to give us a strong effort.

"Obviously, that has paid off. It just goes to show that you don't need to overpower people to have success on the mound. Just being able to control your pitches, locate and pitch to contact can take you a long way. Today that showed."

Tommy Gertner sufferd the loss for Glenbrook North (25-10). He worked 6 innings and allowed 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out eight.