POWAY —— No seniors, no problem. The Mission Hills High softball team is an upstart program with five juniors, six sophomores and two freshmen.

These Grizzlies may be young, but they are sure talented. They proved that ability outweighs experience on Thursday night, when Mission Hills advanced to the CIF Division III finals in its first year of existence after a 2-0 victory over No. 1 seed Santana at Sportsplex USA.

The Grizzlies will play Valhalla, which defeated Clairemont 8-2 in the other semifinal, in Saturday's final.

"All I was hoping for this season was to win more games than we lost," Mission Hills coach Leonard Gann said. "To make it all the way to the finals in our first year is phenomenal. We were just excited to get to this point and to play a great team like Santana.

"But that's not to say that I didn't think we had a chance. I thought that if we could get into the fifth inning with a tie, we might be able to pull it out. I have a few free swingers on this team, and when they get a hold of one, anything can happen." ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ

Catcher Jessica Fedder is one of Gann's free swingers, and when she stepped up to the plate in the sixth, something big happened.

She drilled a first-pitch fastball to deep left field that would have left most any prep softball field. The hit drove Vanessa Perez home from first base to score what would be the game-winning run.

"(Santana pitcher Shae Bass) threw me a first-pitch strike in each of my first two at-bats," Fedder said, "so when she threw another one in the sixth, I was ready for it." ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ

Fedder ended up with a triple and coasted home one at-bat later when Stephanie Frasca singled to right field.

Pitcher Whitney Orellana (18-7) secured victory for Mission Hills (20-7) with a perfect seventh. She had four strikeouts and let her defense take care of the rest. The Grizzlies outfield played superbly against Santana (26-5), shagging a number of deep fly balls during the course of the game.

Perez, the Grizzlies leadoff hitter, sparked the offense by going 3-for-3 with a single to every field.

Contact staff writer Scott Bair at (760) 739-6642 or sbair@nctimes.com.