Zach Colangelo knew he had just one shot.
Operating in a 3-0 count with Wheaton North up three runs on Naperville Central in the sixth, Colangelo never hesitated.
Colangelo took the offering from Charlie Walzer and deposited it into the left-center field gap to knock in a pair of runs and move the Falcons’ bulge to five runs.
His 3-for-4 day at the plate leading the way, Colangelo and Wheaton North never let the foot off the gas offensively en route to securing a 12-5 DuPage Valley Conference victory on Friday.
“Coach gave me the 3-0 go-ahead green light,” Colangelo said. “I knew I better hit it as hard as I could. Otherwise, of course, he wouldn’t be happy. So basically we just came out here, laid down some bunts and tried to play small ball. And then got the big hits when we needed to.”
The triple from Colangelo, who had three RBI, allowed a pair of bunt singles to start the inning as Wheaton North was opportunistic all afternoon.
In sending the Redhawks (20-9, 14-7) to their fifth loss in the last six games, the Falcons pounded out 12 hits as five players had at least two hits.
The Falcons scored in five of their seven innings and scored at least two runs in four of those five innings.
Sandwiched between Liam Heath’s 11 strikeouts in a Redhawks’ 10-0 shutout on Thursday, Wheaton North’s offense peppered their pitching for a combined 21 runs on 24 hits on Wednesday and Friday.
“We knew that there was going to be rain and we knew that we had to put as many runs on the board,” Colangelo said. “We didn’t know it was going to hold off like this. But basically we knew with the wet grass that we would need to take extra bases and we would need to put the ball on the ground because we knew it would be difficult for them to throw the ball.”
A three-run bottom of the sixth got Naperville Central within two runs at 7-5, but a five-run top of the seventh immediately followed for Wheaton North.
That, in many ways, was the issue for the Redhawks – who saw the Falcons counter their three run-scoring innings with runs the very next inning.
“We’d get a couple, we’d give them right back,” Naperville Central coach Mike Stock said. “We got to answer. If we’re getting runs, we can’t let them answer and we let that happen.”
Tyler Brinker got the ball in hopes of following Heath’s lead for Naperville Central, but Wheaton North attacked him early and often.
Brinker (2-2) was charged with five runs – three earned – on five hits while striking out two in his 3 1/3 innings.
“He was struggling to spot his fastball,” Stock said of Brinker. “When he’s good, he’s got a changeup and a curveball, which (Friday) weren’t bad. But he couldn’t spot his fastball. It was just tough. He’d have to throw it twice to get a strike and that’s where he struggled.”
