Grizzlies find way to CIF softball crown

By: TERRY MONAHAN - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 28, 2005 10:18 PM PDT ∞

Mission Hills pitcher Whitney Orellana throws a strike in the fifth inning of the CIF-San Diego Section Championships at UCSD Saturday morning.
Robert Benson/For the North County Times
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LA JOLLA ---- While their teammates were warming up, pitcher Whitney Orellana and catcher Jessica Fedder were driving all over La Jolla trying to find the softball field at UC San Diego.

The Mission Hills High batterymates arrived just 20 minutes before the first pitch of the CIF Division III softball championship game, but it hindered neither them nor the Grizzlies. Mission Hills blasted Valhalla 8-0 for the first CIF title in the nine-month history of the school on Saturday.

Orellana allowed the Norsemen, last year's Division II champions, just three singles while striking out five. She walked one, and only one runner reached scoring position.

She and Fedder departed San Marcos for La Jolla, as did the rest of the Grizzlies, when the bus the team had ordered never arrived at the school. Thinking they knew where they were going, Orellana, the passenger, and Fedder, the driver, didn't follow any of their teammates.

Everyone else arrived in plenty of time. The location of Orellana and Fedder was unknown until the two slid down an embankment to reach the field 20 minutes prior to the first pitch.

"I was freaking out more than Jessica was,'' said Orellana, a junior right-hander who improved to 19-7. "I was sitting there just laughing, which is what I do when I get nervous.

"We had to stop at a pool to get directions to the field that I was at last year. I forgot you can't see the field from the road."

The way Orellana pitched, she may never show up early again.

She blanked Valhalla (26-7-2) and pitcher Lacey Wilson, last year's CIF player of the year, who was 22-3 heading into the title game.

Until the sixth inning, Wilson looked as dominant as her record.

That's when junior Stephanie Frasca lined a double to center, scoring freshman Vanessa Perez, who had tripled, and Fedder, who had walked, to break a scoreless tie.

That was all the Grizzlies (21-7) needed as they amassed 11 hits against Wilson.

For good measure, Mission Hills, which has no seniors, posted six runs in the seventh inning. The big shot was a bases-clearing triple by Frasca for the game's final three runs.

"We tend to wait until the end of games to score,'' Frasca said. "I knew she wouldn't throw me any strikes to hit, so I had to go for anything that was in the umpire's strike zone.

"We were motivated to do this. We heard at the CIF (selection) meeting (that) no one thought we could beat good teams because we lost to San Marcos late in the year.

"Our goal was to win CIF. No one expected us to make it this far."

Seeded No. 4, Mission Hills not only beat No. 2 Valhalla in the finals, but the Grizzlies stopped No. 1 Santana in the semifinals.

"People may have underestimated us,'' said Mission Hills coach Leonard Gann, who took San Marcos to a CIF title in 1998. "I told the girls there have been thousands of really good softball players in this county who never got to a title game.

"Just enjoy the moment and let everything else take care of itself."

Once all the Grizzlies got to the park, everything did take care of itself, at least in the final two innings.

Frasca was 2-for-4 with five RBIs, while Perez and Fedder were each 2-for-3. Holly Russell was also 2-for-4.

"To have a banner in the gym from the first year of the school is great,'' Orellana said. "This year we wanted to prove ourselves, especially after last season."

The Grizzlies who attended San Marcos last year endured a winless season in Palomar League competition before enrolling at Mission Hills.

Now they're county champions.

"This whole day has been a blur to me,'' Orellana said. "People wondered how good we would be since we were 0-10 last year in league."

Contact staff writer Terry Monahan at (760) 739-6648 or tmonahan@nctimes.com.