Wheaton North 14, Naperville North 3
Double-digit scoring is becoming the norm for Wheaton North's baseball team.
The Falcons did it again on Thursday, rolling to a 14-3 five-inning victory over visiting Naperville North in the final game of their key DuPage Valley Conference series.
Combined with Wednesday's win, Wheaton North (10-2, 5-1) claimed victory in two of the three games. The Falcons also added two more games where they scored at least 10 runs, bringing their season total to six games.
They outscored the Huskies 28-5 in the last two days, and their potent offense is now averaging better than 9 runs per game.
"We're scoring a lot of runs, the whole lineup," said senior Matt Palackdharry, who homered and drove in 4 runs. "We lost a nail-biter against them in the first game, and I think that really carried over. We were real fired up."
It showed in the first inning when the Falcons opened a 3-0 lead on RBI singles by Palackdharry, winning pitcher Aric Dama (3-1) and Travis Otto.
Wheaton North built a 9-0 lead in the second inning with the help of 3 Naperville North errors. Ryan Javech, Trey Martin, Dama and Otto each drove in runs.
Naperville North (10-4, 4-2) came back with 2 unearned runs in the top of the fourth when David McWilliams smacked a 2-run single. The Huskies added their final run in the fifth on Mike Nodzenski's RBI double.
Dama allowed no earned runs in pitching all 5 innings, striking out four and walking one.
"We faced a good team, and they were better than us," said Huskies coach Carl Hunckler. "They deserved to win the series. They got the key hits, they got people on base, they moved the ball. And we didn't."
Jack DeAno's 2-run single boosted Wheaton North's lead back to 11-2. Palackdharry put the margin at 12 runs with a 3-run homer. The game ended after Naperville North failed to pull within single digits in the top of the fifth.
"Monday was a tough loss," Wheaton North coach Dan Schoessling said of his team's 6-5 eight-inning defeat to the Huskies. "More than anything we were just disappointed in how we played. We didn't show what we could do, and I think that bothered our guys more than anything.
"I think that had a lot to do with how we came out yesterday and today," he said.