The Rock Island Rockettes capped an extraordinary undefeated season with an 8-5 win over the Blue Thunder to take the West Seattle Girls Softball U15 championship last week.

This is the Rockettes’ second championship in three years and their third under skipper Robert Henry. The Rockettes were led by ace Tamsen Henry, who got the complete game win in the final, pitching seven innings and recording 15 strikeouts. The Rockettes had to survive a nail-biting bottom of the seventh rally from a scrappy and hungry Blue Thunder team to take the championship trophy back to Vashon.

“We knew starting this season that we had a solid foundation of pitching and defense. We wanted to improve our hitting and worked hard all season long at our indoor training facility to get the girls more confidence in the box,” assistant coach Rick Bonaventura said after the game.

It was an approach that paid dividends all season with the Rockettes stroking eight home runs, nine triples and an incredible 20 doubles this year.

Throughout the season, Henry (59 innings pitched, 116 strikeouts) shared pitching duty with Tierney Stumpf (26 innings pitched, 46 strikeouts), and between them split 17 wins and provided the backbone of a stellar defense that allowed fewer than four runs per league game. Henry was the workhorse, making an appearance in 15 games. Halfway through the season, she modified her windup, adding a slight rock to ease her rhythm and provide more kick. The result was an even more devastating fastball/changeup combination to flummox opponents. The jewel of her regular season was a complete-game, one-hit shutout against the Electric Eels. The Rockettes breezed through the first two rounds of playoffs and found themselves up against second-seed Blue Thunder in the title game.

The Blue Thunder jumped out to an early 2-1 lead, and the game lived up to its billing as a pitchers’ duel with each team battling and gutting it out to manufacture runs. The Rockettes’ breakthrough came in the third inning. With one run in and bases loaded, lefty Kaitlyn Bonaventura stepped into the box. She quickly fell behind in the count, but managed to stay alive, fouling off three pitches. With the count 0-2, she connected on an outside fastball, crushing a line-drive deep to left field. The ball was to the fence before the defense caught up, and Bonaventura cruised into third for a three-RBI, stand-up triple. Two batters later, Rachael Freebourn delivered an opposite-field home-run blast that ended the inning with five runs. But the Rockettes failed to slam the door and left runners in scoring position in the fourth, fifth and seventh and went down in order in the sixth. Sure-handed backstop Amber Fairbanks was three for three with two perfect bunts, but was left stranded each time. Lola Kuyper scored her second run of the game in the fifth, scoring off a single by Bonaventura, who ended the day three-for-three with a crucial four RBIs. The Rockettes entered the bottom of the seventh hanging on to a five-run lead, but with Henry deep into her pitch-count and the burden of a perfect season weighing heavily.

At first they wobbled. A seeing-eye dribbler crossed-up the defense for an infield hit. A routine grounder was fielded cleanly but the throw was wide. The Blue Thunder battled and scraped together two runs. With one out, suddenly, the tying run was on deck. A looping pop-fly toward right seemed like a sure RBI hit. Julia Papa sprinted from shallow second base toward the outfield grass, making an over-the-shoulder reaching grab to snag the ball at the outfield fringe for the second out, squelching the momentum and silencing the Blue Thunder’s home field crowd. Henry settled back in on the rubber, nodded in agreement with Fairbanks’ pitch selection and blew a chest-high fastball by the next batter for strike three, third out, game over. The Rockettes exploded in jubilation. Champions again.

Head Coach Robert Henry praised the girls.

“The team worked hard and trusted each other, and I couldn’t be happier with the way they hung in there,” he said. “Credit the Blue Thunder for never giving up and pushing the team to the last out. Every Rockette contributed this game. Every one. And it’s been like that all year long.”

Leela Hendon and Sadie Burke each scored. Pippa Slade and Delaney Palmer contributed timely hits. Maddi Odegaard’s steady glove secured multiple put-outs at first base.

The 2017 Rock Island Rockettes are the West Seattle Girls U15 champions. A perfect ending to a perfect season for the Rockettes: 17-0. Undefeated.

— Joseph Papa is the father of one of the Rockettes.