The legacy of the Desert Mountain Softball Invitational is it's tough to repeat. Heck, it's tough to win it  more than once.

That remained true Saturday night as the 15th annual tourney produced a 13th different champ, in a surprising title game matchup between Mesa Mountain View and Paradise Valley.

And the leaders of both squads -- their pitchers -- completed long days battling each other as expected. Mountain View junior Val Kaff outdueled Paradise Valley sophomore Mariah Valencia in this one  as Mountain View prevailed, 7-0, at Horizon Park.

Thirteen schools have won the tournament in its history. The only repeat champ is Red Mountain, which won the first two played in 1998 and 1999. The last 13 champs in succession are North Canyon, Desert Mountain, Sunrise Mountain, Marana Mountain View, Red Mountain, St. Mary's, Cactus, Buena, Chaparral, Basha, Centennial, Canyon del Oro and of course Mountain View.

Kaff was named the tournament's most valuable player and with good reason. She pitched her third shutout of the tournament and started the scoring with a first-inning, two-run homer off Valencia  It was a blast that traveled well beyond the fence in left centerfield.

"it was a good pitch so I swunbg," Kaff said. "We needed to get ahead early in this one."

For the tournament, Kaff pitched 43 of 45 inning and  posted a 6-0 record. She struck out 83 batters, allowed 17 hits and just four runs. Her totals for the championship game were five hits allowed and 13 strikeouts.

"That's the most I've ever pitched," Kaff said of her stints over four days. "I've got so much adrenelin I could still pitch some more. We got a lot of timely hits, and our team pulled together. This one counted the most."

Both Kaff and Valencia threw all three of their teams' games on Saturday. Kaff beat  Horizon 4-2 and Basha, 4-1. Valencia bested Notre Dame 2-1 and Red Mountain, 4-3.

They also helped themselves at the plate on Saturday.Kaff drove in a run to help beat Horizon, but also needed Kelli Wickerman's three-run homer. Against Basha Kaff laced a two-run single and catcher Sidney Ryan hit a two-run homer, her fourth HR of the tournament. Valencia ripped three hits (including a homer) and drove in two runs against defending big-school champion Red Mountain in the semifinals.

Kaff won all six games Mountain View (13-6) won of the seven it played and tossed five innings of shutout, no-hit relief in its only defeat. Valencia pitched five of PV's six wins.

Paradise Valley (11-3) didn't play its best on this night. The Trojans, decked out in gold jerseys and blue hats to promoted childhood cancer awareness rather than the school colors of red and black, committed five errors behind Valencia. As a result a couple of Mountain View's runs were unearned, but not the runs that crossed the plate via Kaff's homer and one in the fourth by Savannah Kirkkpatrick.

Paradise Valley coach Dave Moore was still pleased with his team's week worth of toil. The Trojans are on the rebound for the second year in a row trying to build on a quarterfinal appearance at state last year in 4A-II with a good year now in Division II.

"I'm having a lot of fun with this group," Moore said. "Last year and this year have been great  again. There's a lot of competition in the tournament and a lot of the best teams were here from Division I and Division II. It's very competitive."