Wheaton Warrenville South 4, Wheaton North 2

A little lightning wasn't going to spoil the spoiler.

Wheaton Warrenville South's baseball team brought rival Wheaton North back to the pack in the DuPage Valley Conference with Tuesday's 4-2 victory over the host Falcons.

The first of three cross-town games was interrupted by a lightning delay that lasted about 90 minutes. The game officially ended an inning later because of darkness, giving the Tigers (11-15, 10-9) the win in six innings.

Wheaton North (18-11, 12-7) is now tied in the DVC loss column with Naperville Central and Naperville North, whose Tuesday cross-town game was suspended with the Redhawks leading 4-2 after four innings. Glenbard North, which beat Glenbard East to pull within a game of the Falcons, is also still alive for the DVC title.

"We don't really have a shot at the conference, but four other teams do," said Tigers winning pitcher Nick Brown. "We can kind of be a spoiler. And now that conference is over for us, we want to get something going for the playoffs."

In a duel between aces, Brown (2-5) helped himself with a 2-run third-inning double off Wheaton North's Jack DeAno (5-1). Back-to-back fourth-inning RBI doubles by Matt Glawe and Tom Marsh padded the lead to 4-0.

Both frames were sparked by Wheaton North errors. WW South, meanwhile, committed no errors.

"We made some mistakes and they capitalized on them," said Falcons coach Dan Schoessling. "Both pitchers threw well. Defensively, they just played better than we did."

Brown, who struck out five in 5 innings, sent Wheaton North down in order in the first three innings. But in the fourth the Falcons started the inning with 5 straight hits.

Matt Palackdharry and Travis Otto each singled home runs to cut the gap to 4-2. A 5-2-3 double play started by Nick Egan, though, was followed by another nice play at third by Egan to keep the 2-run lead intact.

The Falcons then stranded runners at second and third in the fifth inning and had a runner called out in the sixth inning for tagging up too early on a flyball.

The game was called because of darkness in the top of the seventh. Ariel Rodriguez pitched a scoreless sixth to earn his first save.

"You hate to see a game end like this," said Tigers coach Tim Brylka. "There's a lot more on the line for them than for us. But at the same time we're trying to get some confidence and momentum for the tournament. I think we're making those steps."