The story was a little different for No. 5 Mesa Mountain View on Monday night in its latest Division I softball tournament triumph.

Senior ace Val Kaff wasn't the dominating force she's been late in the season and in two prior playoff outings in terms of power and precision. But a shutout is still plenty good, especially given it came against  top-seed  Mountain Ridge.

Kaff tossed a four-hit shutout and got offensive support from Sidney Ryan and Brit Lindblom as the Lady Toros defeated Mountain Ridge, 5-0, in a winners' bracket semifinal at the Rose Mofford Softball Complex.

Mountain View (27-6) advances to a battle of tournament unbeatens Wednesday May 8 against  Mesa rival and three-time defending champ Red Mountain at 6:30 p.m. at Rose Mofford. Red Mountain advanced by avenging a pair of regular-season losses to Desert Ridge. Final in that one was 11-0 in six innings. Mountain Ridge (31-3)  had a 20-game winning streak snapped and faces an elimination game Tuesday May 7 at 6:30 against Chaparral at Rose Mofford.

Kaff, who has been lighting up the strikeout meter of late with double-digit strikeouts and has more than 400 this season in 203 2/3 innings, faced a tough Mountain Ridge lineup with 28 homers out of the No. 3 and No. 4 spots (Ayssa DiCarlo and Corrin Green, respectively). She and pitcing opponent Said Foley faced a tight strike zone and worked through it. Kaff, however, did a slightly better job.

"Val made the adjustment," Mountain View coach Joe Goodman said. "She settled down, and the defense did its job (no errors and eight ground outs)."

Kaff finished with ix strikeouts and walked four, numbers in both categories foreign to her. But other than leadoff hitter Bailey Gaffin (three walks and a single) she tamed the Lady Mountain Lions' lineup. DiCarlo and Green were a combined 1-for-6.  All four of Mountain Ridge's hits were singles.

As for Foley, she made one mistake in her first three innings. It wasn't a bad mistake, but a low pitch to Sidney Ryan caught too much of the plate and Mountain View's catcher popped a two-run homer over the center-field fence for a 2-0 lead. Leadoff hitter Lindblom had reached in front of Ryan with the Lady Toros' first hit -- a bunt single. Sidney Ryan, who had two hits, fanned on a rise ball in the first inning.

"Sid is a great all-around hitter," Goodman said. "No one can fool her with pitches more than once very often. It was nice to have Val get the lead, but getting runs the next inning was huge. You never want to sit back and thinka couple will be enough. Not against a team like (Mountain Ridge)." 

Mountain View added three runs in the fourth, getting singles from Kayla Jackson and Kinsey Ryan, a walk to Sia Iongi and Lindblom's biggest hit of the game -- a two-run single to right. Foley threw a wild pitch to the next hitter and that allowed Iongi to score.

Mountain Ridge shut down Mountain View the final three innings with Kayline Ayotte allowing no runs and two hits in her stint.