Desert Mountain softball coach Rick Sharp may have been too gracious Monday afternoon.

Sharp took the opportunity to do a good deed by presenting the most valuable player award from this year's Desert Mountain Invitational to Mesa Mountain View pitcher Val Kaff a couple minutes prior to the start of the Wolves' key matchup with the Toros at Mountain View.

A nice touch. Give Kaff, the Toros standout who hurled her team to the Desert Mountain Tourney title back on March 24, the MVP plaque in front of her home crowd.

Kaff figured she should return the favor. However, she did so by turning in a Desert Mountain Invitational-like  performance that keyed  Mountain View 's 6-3 win to keep its Division I playoff hopes alive.

Mountain View (20-10, 10-6 power-point games), which has games remaining Tuesday with Sunnyside and Wednesday against Skyline, still is on the outside looking in in the playoff chase. Wins in those games likely would qualify the Toros with a top-24 finish.

Kaff, a junior, struggled in one inning Monday giving up all three Desert Mountain runs in the fourth on five hits. The Toros have not scored a lot of runs this season, so a 3-0 deficit midway through a game is worrisome. Especially when at that point Desert Mountain's Andy Wellins was sailing along with a no-hitter.

But just as Kaff labored in the fourth so did Wellins. Wellins issued four walks in the inning and those combined with an error and two singles added up to four runs for Mountain View.  Mountain View scored its runs on a fielding error, two bases-loaded walks (to Teddy Yellowman and Brittany Lindblom) and a single by Savannah Kirkpatrick.

Armed with a one-run lead, Kaff  retired 12 of the final 14 hitters she faced to lock down the victory. Kaff gave up seven hits, walked two and struck out nine, including Desert Mountain's best hitter Ashley Palmer four times.

"Val pitched her best after they took the lead," Sharp said. "This was a big game for them and we knew that. We're trying to be in the top eight. We have one more game left (Horizon), and we'll have to see if winning that can keep us there."

Desert Mountain is now 23-7 overall and 14-3 in power-point games. The Wolves entered play Monday at No. 6 in the power-point rankings; Mountain View was at No. 30.

Mountain View coach Joe Goodman breathed a sigh of relief when Kaff retired Palmer to end the game, knowing his team remained in contention.

"This team is resilient and so is Val," Goodman said. "We have struggled scoring runs. We got out of the (fourth) inning with a big double play. It gave us some momentum."

Mountain View added two runs in the fifth off reliever Cassie Belt, getting Sid Ryan's ninth homer of the season and a second RBI from pinch-hitter deluxe Yellowman.

"I'm not sure how many games we have to win this week to get in," Goodman said. "We need at least two, but it  wouldn't hurt to win all three."