When Jackie Rothenberger made contact with a high, rising pitch and sent the ball sailing over the outfield fence Sunday in Brampton, Ont., she not only propelled her White Rock Renegades to a national midget fastpitch title, but also helped make a little history, too.

With the championship win, the 1991-born Renegades became the first-ever Canadian squad to capture national titles in peewee (which the '91s did in 2005), in bantam (2007), and now, after a 2-1 win over the Manitoba Angels, in midget, too.

"It's absolutely awesome. This is a team that will be remembered for the ages," White Rock head coach Chuck Westgard said from the road Monday, as he drove between Brampton and Guelph, host city for peewee fastpitch nationals in which the Renegades '95 will compete this week.

Rothenberger's solo shot – which Westgard described as "a 250-foot bomb that was gone just as soon as it left the bat," – broke a 1-1 deadlock in the top of the 10th inning, and set the team into a euphoric state in the visitor's dugout.

In the bottom half of the inning, Renegades' pitcher Nicole Sidor – who pitched all 10 innings of the final – set the final three Angel batters down in order to preserve the win.

Sidor fanned 14 batters in the contest, and her Manitoba counterpart, Amanda Greenberg, was just as good, striking out 11 Renegades.

"The whole game was just a great pitcher's duel," Westgard said.

"But we have a few really good high-ball hitters on our team, so as the game went into extra innings, I knew that if we were going to win it, it was probably going to come down to something like (Rothenberger's) home run.

"It was extremely intense – just an absolutely epic final game."

The win was a fitting end to an exhaustive weekend for the Renegades, who rolled through the round-robin portion of nationals with a perfect 7-0 record – with a handful of mercy-rule wins, too – before hitting a speed bump in the first playoff game, which was, coincidentally, against the Angels.

In the first game, the Renegades – who again had Sidor in the pitcher's circle – were surprised by the top-seeded Manitoba club, losing 1-0.

However, by virtue of their first-place round robin finish, White Rock was afforded "double life" – which meant they were not eliminated until they'd lost twice.

"It was a tough loss because it relegated us to the loser's bracket, and meant we had to win four straight games (to win it all)," Westgard explained.

The Renegades responded by defeating the Guelph Gators 2-1 Saturday morning, followed by a 5-0 victory over the Quebec Rebelles in the afternoon. On Sunday, White Rock blanked the Mississauga Tigers 5-0 in semifinals.

Until Saturday, Sidor had pitched every game for the Renegades, so the first three playoff wins were pitched by Courtney Cronin, who was picked up from the Surrey Storm prior to nationals.

"We had amazing pitching from both Nicole and Courtney," Westgard said.

"We were really lucky to be able to put Courtney out there, because she really took some heat off Nicole."

White Rock centre-fielder Toni Shutte was named the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs – "She was amazing with the bat on the weekend," Westgard said – and Sidor was named the tournament's top pitcher.

Tournament all-star nods went to third baseman Marina Groenewegen and outfield Marie Williams.