DeAno sparks Wheaton N.

This wasn't just a spark, it was a 400-foot meteor.

Jack DeAno's 2-run home run in the bottom of the fifth inning sparked a 5-run outburst and powered Wheaton North's baseball team to a 10-5 victory over visiting Naperville North in the first game of a key three-game DuPage Valley Conference series.

The Vanderbilt-bound center fielder's bomb gave the Falcons (11-0, 4-0) a 3-2 lead, but they quickly piled on a few more runs to extend the advantage to 6-2.

When winning pitcher Aric Dama (3-0) retired the side in the top of the sixth, Wheaton North found itself well on the way to extending its program record for consecutive wins and wins to start the season.

"We were real determined to get the lead back after we lost it, and we just had a lot of momentum after we got back on top," DeAno said of his fifth homer of the season. "As soon as we got the momentum, the next two innings we just hit really well."

After Trey Martin and Justin Swider smacked RBI doubles to cap the fifth inning, the Falcons added 4 runs in the sixth to break open the game. Dama's 2-run single put the lead at 10-2.

It was an eagerly anticipated outing for the Falcons, who had to wait through two days of rain postponements to begin their series against Naperville North (10-3, 3-1), which shared last year's DVC title with Wheaton North and Glenbard North.

"I thought we had two good practices and just tried to stay sharp as we can," said Falcons coach Dan Schoessling. "It paid off for us today."

Dama's RBI single spotted Wheaton North to a 1-0 second-inning lead off Huskies starter Charlie White (1-1) but Naperville North tied it on Dan Grimley's run-scoring single in the fourth. The Huskies claimed a 2-1 lead in the fifth when White scored on a single and an error.

Naperville North narrowed the gap to 10-5 with a 3-run seventh when White, Alex Helms and Nick Laskowsky drove in runs.

The series continues today in Wheaton and concludes Friday in Naperville.

"That's been an Achilles' heel in our three losses this year, that one inning," said Naperville North coach Carl Hunckler, whose team surrendered 4 third-inning runs in Saturday's 6-5 loss to Neuqua Valley. "We thought we played pretty well for six of the seven innings."

BOX SCORE

Wheaton North 10, Naperville North 5

Naperville North 000 110 3 -5-9-2

Wheaton North 010 054 0 -10-10-2

2B: NN: White, Sagen, Moon, Helms, Laskowsky. WN: DeAno, Cervenka, Martin, Swider

HR: WN: DeAno; WP: Dama (4-0) LP: White (1-1).