SANTA CLARA — It will go down in Notre Dame High softball lore as "The Swing That Sunk Mitty."

All the frustration and anguish of seven straight losses to the mighty Monarchs came out in Kelly McDonald's vicious cut.

Mitty ace Keilani Ricketts was typically overwhelming — taking a perfect game into the 10th inning of Thursday's afternoon's final in the West Catholic Athletic Tournament.

But McDonald made mincemeat of Ricketts' one mistake, unloading on a two-out pitch for a two-run home run to center. The coach's daughter hammered the 0-1 offering so far past center fielder Alaina Thomas that Mitty couldn't even relay the ball back to the initial cutoff before McDonald crossed the plate.

Final score: Notre Dame 2, Mitty 1. Behind The Swing, Notre Dame secured a share of the WCAL championship, its first.

Mitty had won the outright WCAL championship — the round-robin and tournament titles — in four of the sport's six years, and pocketed its sixth straight regular-season title by going 13-1.

"All season, all we focused on was beating Mitty," said McDonald, a junior. "All our seniors are leaving. This was really our last chance to beat them."

Notre Dame senior ace Emma Holden said beating Mitty to forge a WCAL co-championship ranked above the Tigers' CCS Division III title of a year ago, the program's first since 1977.

"I think it's a prouder moment," Holden said. "We've been anticipating it for so long."

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Holden (14-7) matched zeros with Ricketts (10-1) into the 10th inning to give her batters a chance. The Swing took care of the rest.

"As soon as I hit it," McDonald said, "I knew it was going to be a home run."

She wasn't the only one.

"Gone," Notre Dame coach Ray McDonald said of his reaction to his daughter's swing. "Win."

"On impact? I don't think you can print it," Mitty coach Sarah Thomas said of her immediate thought. "Your stomach drops. She hit a bomb."

All this against the menacing Ricketts. The Oklahoma-bound junior hadn't suffered a defeat in the past two years. And on this afternoon, Ricketts finished with 21 strikeouts.

And lost.

Asked if he had seen a harder hit ball against Ricketts, Ray McDonald said, "I have not. I didn't know Keilani could be hit hard."