Ash's 1-Hit Shutout Propels Grayslake Central Baseball To Supersectional

Mark Ash will head to Winona State University to pitch next fall. And finally he'll be rid of the nightmare that haunted him for a season. It was that three-run homer he surrendered last May to Vernon Hills catcher Chris Marras. It ended the Rams season in regional play.

Saturday morning was designated as his personal revenge day. The Central senior was positively brilliant taking a perfect game to the fourth inning and a no-hitter into the sixth inning.

When Marras lined out to open the seventh inning at Central, Ash went on to complete his one-hit shutout.

Central (30-9) stopped Vernon Hills (30-9) 4-0, and now the Rams are one game short of the Final Four in Class 3A Baseball.

On Monday at 4:30 p.m., the Rams will head to North Central College in Naperville and battle Nazareth for a chance to be one of the top four teams in the state.

"This game was huge,'' Ash said. "It's an amazing game and it was huge for me.''

Ash knows Marras personally as they have played on the same traveling team so there was no hard feelings.

"He's my buddy,'' Ash said.

If this personal redemption day for Ash, it was pretty much the same for fellow senior Sean Boban. His hitting has not been up to his expectations until Saturday. That's when the sixth-place hitter in coach Troy Whalen's lineup came up big.

In a three-run first inning, Boban slapped a hit to right field scoring the third run of the frame. In the third inning, he repeated this act by pushing home the game's fourth run with a hit to left field.

"I've been seeing the ball better,'' Boban said. "I've had a low batting average this year but I've always had the confidence."

Boban hung out in right field and actually grabbed back to back fly balls off the bats of the Vernon Hills hitters. Otherwise, he watched as Ash moved down this tough hitting team.

"I caught a couple a tailers in right field,'' he said. "But Mark was lights out today."

For Central, it marked three sectional titles in four tries since the 2006 season. Whalen, too, gave credit to the right-hander who dominated the game.

"Mark had all his pitches working,'' said Whalen. "He was outstanding. We also played good defense behind him."

That three-run first inning put Ash at ease. After the right-hander retired three straight hitters without the ball going past Ash, Nick Hosford's leadoff walk opened the festivities. Hosford was on second base with two outs. Kristian Meehan's hit scored Hosford.

Some risky baserunning got pinch-runner Matt Loeffl home and on Boban's clutch hit, it was 3-0.

"We ran the bases well,'' Whalen said. "And we got some early runs."

In the meantime, Ash was mowing down the Vernon Hills offense. And he wasn't using the strikeout pitch to do it. Ash fanned just one Cougars player. Instead there were eight fly outs to the outfield.

"The wind impacted the game,'' Whalen said. "Mark was pitching to contact."

Vernon Hills leadoff hitter MJ Crowley broke up the perfect game with a fourth inning walk and the no-hitter with an opposite field single opening up the sixth.

"Today we hit a lot of fly balls off of him,'' Crowley said.

Jon Gurchak had a double and bunt single. Hosford reached twice on walks and singled.

The big sign in the Central outfield recalls the third place state finish in 2009. Now it's time to see how far this team will go.

- Thanks to A.J. Marisca, we have more than 100 photos of the game. Check back to see some great shots of the GCHS baseball team.