Updated: May 28, 2011 6:40PM

Trouble for Sandwich began late in pre-game warm-ups as starting shortstop Hannah Prucha suffered a dislocation that essentially fractured the Indians’ mental focus.

Top-seeded Yorkville capitalized on the situation with a 10-0 mercy rule victory in six innings to capture its own Class 3A softball regional and earn a second straight sectional berth. The Foxes, 22-10 having won 14 of their last 16 contests, now advance to Wednesday’s 4 pm semifinal of the Rochelle Sectional where they’ll face Belvidere North, which claimed its own regional title with a 4-3 win over Freeport.

Prucha’s little finger on her left hand was severely dislocated as Sandwich was finishing up its infield warm-up and with the Indians’ lack of numbers, coach Lauren Vaclavik was forced into repositioning a trio of players along with a few shifts in the batting order immediately before the contest began. Prucha returned from the hospital only in time to see Yorkville get the necessary runs to cut the game short and end Sandwich’s season at 14-17.

“That injury proved to be huge,” Vaclavik lamented. “Jordan (Johnson) hadn’t played shortstop in a year and Gina (Lorusso) not only hadn’t see time at third, we’d been working with her in the outfield. We just brought (sophomore) McKenzie (Sauer) up from JV, and suddenly she’s starting in a regional championship.”

Be it nerves or unfamiliarity, Sandwich’s troubles began in the bottom of the first. While the Indians got a second out on a fielder’s choice grounder, a single by Yorkville senior Megan Kuhn got runners on the corners before Sandwich had consecutive throwing errors from third and short to help the Foxes claim a 3-0 lead.

Yorkville starter Rachael Owens, who gave up a lead-off single but escaped the first with consecutive strikeouts, dialed up a called third strike to end a three-up, three-down second frame. Sandwich hurler Morgan Murphy (now 12-12) chalked up a strikeout before another infield error landed Corrine Rowe on second just prior to Sonja Gilbertson singling up the middle to make it 3-0. Fortunately for the Indians, only one more run was pushed home despite three more hits.

Two more strikeouts by Owens helped put Sandwich down in order in the third and despite consecutive hits in the fourth, the Foxes kept the visitors off the scoreboard before some aggressive base-running and an RBI single by Kuhn upped the lead to 6-0.

“Losing their shortstop and No. 3 hitter definitely took the wind out of their sails,” Yorkville coach Kathi Dockstader acknowledged. “But we also went out and capitalized on their mistakes, and although we didn’t get lots of hits, we wanted to put pressure on them and going from first to third on a bunt with no one covering third was an example of being aggressive and smart.”

While Owens stranded four Indians and tallied eight strikeouts over the course of 62 pitches, the Yorkville freshman right-hander improved to 10-6 in the circle.

“My rise ball hasn’t been on target as much as I’d like, but it worked well today and the defense was there for me as well,” Owens said. “As a freshman, I’m just happy to be a part of a regional win, but it’s really cool to experience this with our seniors who wanted it so much.”

That desire was evident in the bottom of the sixth when Gilbertson started with a single before Sandwich’s fourth error enabled to Lauren Rhodes --- the pre-game national anthem singer --- to plate two runs with a double to left. Kuhn’s follow-up triple got Rhodes home and when Heidi Dockstader cracked the Foxes’ 15th hit for the day, it got Kuhn in for the 10-run lead.

“(A second straight regional title) is awesome and as much as I want to go out with a bang, as seniors, we set pre-season goals including taking it a step further,” Kuhn added in regard to surpassing last year’s sectional semi-final exit.

“Last year was the first time in a long time for us to get to sectionals,” Dockstader recalled. “We played well for three innings and then things went awry (in the form of a 15-4 loss to Geneseo). But this year I’m certain the kids are more mentally prepared to face tougher teams.”

While Yorkville’s focus is only on Belvidere North for the present, Rochelle’s other semifinal to be played on Thursday includes Geneseo (an 8-1 regional winner over Sterling) and Sycamore (a 5-2 titlist versus Burlington Central).

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