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Warren finds winning mix against Glenbard North

EAST PEORIA - Making its first appearance at the softball state finals in 34 years, Warren applied all the right ingredients against Glenbard North on Friday afternoon.

Sabrina Trevino and Megan Scott parked long solo home runs at EastSide Centre, and Jana Wagner did the rest.

The senior right-hander no-hit the potent Glenbard North offense for five innings as the Blue Devils opened the Class 4A semifinal with 6 unanswered runs.

Cece Dopart sliced the Panthers' deficit in half with a 3-run bomb of her own in the top of the seventh, but Wagner induced back-to-back outs by air to accentuate the Blue Devils' 6-3 triumph.

Warren (29-7) has a chance to earn its first team state championship in any girls sport with a victory over Sandburg (24-15), which denied Lincoln-Way East in the first semifinal 5-1 Saturday evening.

Glenbard North (30-6) faces the Griffins (27-11) for third place.

Wagner got 13 outs via routine pops or routine flyballs, by, in her words, "hitting the corners, up and down and making them hit under.

"We knew it would be a tough game. We knew they were predicted to be one of the top teams down here."

Stephanie Campos' first-inning walk was the lone blemish against Wagner over the first five innings.

Trevino hit a tape-measure blast over the left-center fence to open the scoring in the Blue Devils' second, and Scott tomahawked a high fastball to the farthest reaches of the same area in the fourth.

"(Dopart) was giving us the screwball a lot," Trevino said. "I saw my pitch and hit it. I'm really excited. I'm only a sophomore. I was trying to make varsity (at the start of the season)."

Scott, meanwhile, swung at a pitch out of the strike zone to double the Blue Devils' lead.

"There's a lot of nerves at this state atmosphere," Scott said. "I just wanted to hit. I wanted to get my bat on anything I could hit."

But the Blue Devils were far from finished.

Trevino doubled and later came home on the first of two line drives lost in the glaring sun by Glenbard North outfielders.

Crystal Pennell had a run-scoring single, and the Blue Devils' last pair of runs came home via Amber Leneau and Jazmin Bonke on the second outfield misplay.

"It was unfortunate," Glenbard North coach Josh Sanew said of the 4 unearned runs. "They were liners that stayed in that sun. That made it very difficult."

Given new life after a dropped foul ball, the Panthers' Lauren Gramann ended the no-hit bid with a leadoff double in the sixth.

But Wagner stranded runners at the corners to preserve the shutout.

Glenbard North offered one last salvo.

Alex Cavila and Kayla Quanstrum were aboard when Dopart cleared the center-field fence with a towering drive.

"I finally got to know what her routine was," Dopart said of solving Wagner. "I just made sure I had the right swing."

But the Panthers were relegated to the third-place game when Wagner induced a popout and a routine flyball to center.

"That's uncharacteristic of our offense," Sanew said of the Panthers' early struggles. "It was the wrong time for us to play the worst game of the year. We didn't come to Peoria to go 0-2."

Warren's Sabrina Trevino beats a throw to Panthers shortstop Sydney Benz during Friday's Class 4A state semifinal game in East Peoria. Warren defeated Glenbard North 6-3 to advance to the title game. Clark Brooks/PhotoNews
Glenbard North's Cece Dopart winds up for a pitch during the Class 4A state semifinal game against Warren on Friday. The Panthers lost 6-3 and will play for third place Saturday against Lincol-Way East. Clark Brooks/PhotoNews
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