Falcons use escape clause

You can't say Willowbrook's baseball team didn't have its chances Wednesday afternoon.

Facing one of the better teams in the area in Wheaton North, the Warriors stranded five baserunners in the fourth and fifth innings, allowing the Falcons to escape Villa Park with a 7-4 victory.

Wheaton North (5-0) senior pitcher Jack DeAno loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the fourth yet managed to wriggle out of the inning allowing only a single run. Falcons reliever Aric Dama began the fifth inning, walking the first two batters before escaping the inning unharmed.

"Jack and Aric both, they're real good competitors," Falcons coach Dan Schoessling said. "Even when (the Warriors) were kind of chipping away, they kind of held it together and kind of relied on their defense.

"Jack kind of settled down there just in time, and Aric just hit some spots more than anything."

Wheaton North notched all seven of its runs across the first three innings, building a 7-1 advantage in the top of the third when Dama's groundout to shortstop scored catcher Jack Quinn. Quinn's RBI single in the top of the first scored a pair of Falcons and gave Wheaton North a 4-0 lead before DeAno ever delivered a pitch.

"We always want to just come out and kind of jump on teams to start with, and give our pitchers some confidence going out there," Quinn said. "For the most part we've tried to get out ahead early and it's worked out for us."

Willowbrook (4-3) began chipping away in the third inning. A deep flyball to right field off the bat of Chris Savas scored Dan Mahnke, who later came around to score on a groundout to shave Wheaton North's lead to 7-3. A defensive gaffe allowed the Warriors their fourth run in the bottom of the fourth before DeAno ended the inning with a strikeout.

"We've been swinging the bats well, but today we didn't," Willowbrook coach Steve Gilliam said. "Tip your hat to (DeAno) a little bit; we thought we could battle back like we've been doing, but it didn't happen today."

The extra chances afforded to the Falcons didn't help the Willowbrook cause either.

"You can't give a good baseball team free opportunities. Four of their guys got on base by an error, a hit bitter or walks," Gilliam said. "That's the difference in the baseball game."