Sandburg taken down by Moline

Updated: June 6, 2011 10:19PM

NORMAL — Sandburg coach Jim Fabianski warned of it.

Moline confirmed it.

The Maroons who took the field for Monday’s Class 4A Normal Supersectional at Illinois State University were not the same girls that the Eagles took apart in an opening-day doubleheader sweep.

These Maroons were healthy. Aggressive. A little psyched for some revenge.

They got it, big-time, with a 10-5 victory that officially dethroned Sandburg as the defending Class 4A state champion.

Jess Perkins and Lora Olson had two hits each, and the Eagles (28-7) were able to bounce back from an early deficit, but a seven-run fifth inning by Moline (27-8-1) proved devastating.

“I spoke the truth,” Fabianski said of his pre-game analysis on Saturday. “They were not prepared at the beginning of the season to play. And they were not 100 percent.

“If they’re still not 100 percent, wow. I’d hate to see them when they are 100 percent, because they did a heck of a job today.”

A Sandburg miscue in the first inning gave the Maroons a two-run head start. But Perkins, who made a throwing error that led to the early deficit, sparked a nice third-inning comeback with an RBI double that sent home Lizzie Wojtowicz (walk).

“After I made that throwing error I said, ‘Let’s go guys, pick me up,’” Perkins said. “They’ve always been there for me. And we all fought to the end.”

Olson followed Perkins’ shot with a two-run double that put the Eagles in front 3-2. Kelly Sheridan then bounced an RBI single up the middle.

After Briana Fanning singled, Candice Koch doubled and Wojtowicz launched a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2 in the fourth, Sandburg appeared on its way.

But the ticking bomb that was Moline’s offense went off in the bottom of the fifth.

With one out, Kaitlyn Knary singled up the middle. Lindsey Nelson coaxed the second walk of the day by Olson. Jordan de los Reyes grounded an RBI single to right.

Then the biggest blast of all came off the bat of Brittny Drish, a three-run homer over the fence in left field.

She was one of those “hurt” Maroons when Sandburg swept them 9-0 and 10-4 on March 19.

“My back was bothering me then and so was my Achilles,” Drish said.

She wasn’t hurting as her prodigious blow flew over the fence.

“No, not at all,” she said, laughing. “That felt amazing. I just wanted it so bad. This is the game I’ve wanted. I could care less about any other game. I just wanted to beat Sandburg.”

The Maroons went on to score three more runs in the fifth, and tack on another in the sixth. Pitcher Jordan Kasbohm, who also lost to Sandburg in the 2010 Class 4A semifinals, retired 11 of the last 13 batters she faced to send the Eagles home.

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