After a decade-long hiatus, baseball has once again returned to the Yukon capital.

With eyes on the 2017 Canada Summer Games and 2019 Western Canada Summer Games, a dedicated group of volunteers has begun holding practices in Whitehorse to introduce young players to the game.

For the second week in a row, a group of approximately 15 youth athletes took to the diamond behind Porter Creek Secondary School to take a try at baseball. Over the course of an hour, players took turns batting, fielding and throwing bullpen sessions.

The game isn’t as easy as it looks, said 13-year-old Kyron Crosby, a member of this year’s U14 softball champion squad – Yukon College.

“I’ve watched a lot of baseball, but I’ve never played before,” he said, noting the obvious difference of the smaller ball.

“For batting, the ball’s pretty small. You really have to keep your eye on it.

“It’s pretty cool that we have a hardball team going on now,” he added.

“Hardball’s a pretty fun game. I like it better than softball, actually.”

Meanwhile in the bullpen, 10-year-old lefty Huss Breithaupt fired several strikes into the glove of catcher Jeff Frizzell as pitching instructor Craig Claggett looked on.

“It’s fun to play,” Breithaupt said. “I love the game.”

The Toronto Blue Jays fan said he’s grown up on softball, but would love to get the chance to pitch overhand for the Yukon sometime in the future.

“It’s great,” said Mike L’Henaff, who stood behind the chainlink fence, watching his son Garon take his turn in the batter’s box and field.

“It’s good to work with youth and any ball program is needed in any town. Hopefully it can grow.”

The revival of baseball in the territory has been a long time coming, said Matt Kremer, a member of the program’s organizing committee.

And with two major sporting competitions on the horizon in the next four years, Kremer said the time was ripe.

“We know we’ve got a lot of work to put in before we can even attempt to go to those (Canada Games and Westerns), but that’s our carrot out there,” he told the Star last night. “For this year, we’re just trying to have the kids get a taste of the basic fundamentals, because most of these kids have never thrown or hit a baseball.

“Down south, all the kids play baseball. It seems unfortunate that the kids up here don’t get a chance to.”

Kremer spent the night on the mound, throwing soft toss to batters, many of whom eventually connected on some solid liners to the outfield.

He said he’s been impressed with the talent of the young players thus far.

“All of us coaches are pretty impressed so far,” said Kremer. “I guess we had our expectations really low. But some of these kids are good athletes.”

Anyone is welcome to attend the weekly practices, which take place from 7 to 8 Thursday nights at the baseball diamond behind Porter Creek Secondary School.

The specific age group being identified for the upcoming national competitions is youths age 12 to 16.

If all works out, Kremer said he’d like to have the program continue with pitching and fielding work through the winter at the Canada Games Centre.

“Hopefully it will grow and turn into a league or something here,” Kremer said.

He said a baseball league could help fill a calendar gap in the late summer that occurs after the youth softball playoffs wrap up in June.

The last Star reports on baseball in the territory date back to 2006, when Baseball Yukon hosted a high school championships.

Regardless of future competitions, Kremer said having youth gathered on a local diamond to play ball is success enough.

“Just getting it started and seeing the kids enjoying it is success to me,” he said. “There’s a lot of kids that just love playing ball.”