Wheaton North follows big inning with good pitching
Wheaton North loved its 7-run bottom of the third.
What made it even better, though, was the shutdown inning that followed - courtesy of Falcons starting pitcher Mike Coduto - in the top of the fourth.
The combination stopped an offensive ebb and flow and pushed Wheaton North's baseball team to a 14-4 five-inning victory over Benet Tuesday in Lisle.
The Falcons (7-1) sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third, smacking 6 hits including doubles by Ben Murrow and Justin Swider, a triple by Mike Small and a 3-run homer by Reece Butler.
The outburst gave Wheaton North a 10-4 lead, but the exclamation mark came when Coduto (2-0) needed only 5 pitches to get through the top of the fourth.
"It was a good win, we scored a lot of runs," said Murrow, who went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles and 3 RBI. "I think we took advantage of the situations we had, kept getting hits. And Mike kept us in it."
Benet (3-4) held leads of 1-0 in the first inning and 4-3 in the third. Sam Santa Maria had a pair of RBI singles, while Zac Lewinski also singled home a run.
The Redwings' 3-run third inning came on the heels of Wheaton North's 3-run bottom of the first when Jeff Schalk, Murrow and Jake Schieber laced RBI singles.
While Wheaton North kept the bats going, however, Benet shut down in the final two innings. That allowed the Falcons to seize command while Coduto settled in.
"You've got to give them a lot of credit, they really hit the ball today," said Benet coach Jeff Bonebrake. "We made a couple of miscues that they took advantage of, but they just flat-out hit the ball. They just played well."
The Falcons loaded the bases on three walks in the fifth inning, a run scoring on a fourth walk to Dale Trimble. The game ended on a one-out fielder's choice.
Swider went 3-for-3 for the Falcons, while Small and Butler had 2 hits apiece. Santa Maria singled in all three trips to the plate for Benet.
"We swung the bats real well today," Falcons coach Dan Schoessling said of his team's 13-hit attack. "We didn't play a perfect game by any means, but I think our bats were the story today. We pressured them all game long, and Mike did a nice job on the mound against a tough lineup."