Players on the Chilkoot Steel oldtimer's made up for some lost time on Sunday, winning their opening game in the Yukon Fastball League.

Despite missing the majority of the first month of play, the group didn't show any signs of rust in its close one-run victory over Cinderwood .

Some timely hits and stellar pitching, including a strikeout to conclude the contest, ended up making the difference for Chilkoot Steel.

"For this veteran crowd it was their first game of the season and their experience showed," said oldtimer's pitcher Chris Saunders. "It's good to be playing fastball again."

The addition of Chilkoot Steel brings the league's numbers to four teams. For the remainder of the season, each team will play one game every Sunday (with the exception of this coming Sunday as a result of the annual Dustball tournament).

Fastball executives weren't certain if the Chilkoot Steel would have enough players to field a team until Sunday. Currie Dixon, the league's media representative, however, said he was confident that it would happen.

"To get this fourth team here is perfect, it's the missing piece of the puzzle," said he said. "Four teams is what we were aiming for and that's what we got. To have a bunch of these guys who haven't played in however many years come back and play is great."

He said the league isn't that concerned with the standings as it is with just playing games.

"What we wanted to get going this year was having a functioning league and that's what we have now," Dixon said. "So I don't think anybody has their eyes on the standings, they are just worried about playing ball."

After both teams blanked the first inning on Sunday, Cinderwood batted in its first run in top half of the second. However, two grounders to Saunders helped Chilkoot Steel make it out of the inning without giving up any more runs.

The oldtimers went to work in the bottom half of the second, loading the bases with just one out. A walk and a wild pitch gave them the lead. Two more runs were scored before Kirk Gale was able to get a strike out to end the inning. The score was 4-1.

With one swing of the bat, Logan Freese helped bring Cinderwood back into the contest in the top of the third. Freese hit an in-the-park home run to right field, cutting his team's deficit in half. Cinderwood added one more run in the third inning.

Both teams showed off their defensive abilities for the next two innings, maintaining a 4-3 score. However, Chilkoot Steel added two more insurance runs in the fifth. Both runs were scored with two outs.

Cinderwood outfielder Cody Woodman came within an eyelash of preventing the oldtimer's sixth tally, just missing out on making a spectacular diving catch.

Gale helped out his own cause in the final inning, doubling home Cinderwood's first run. Cinderwood added one more run to its total, but that was as close as the squad would get.

Regardless of just coming up short, Cinderwood third-baseman Graham Cowman said he wasn't disappointed about the loss.

"I was just out to have a good time and out to play some ball," he said.

The remaining fastball game played on Sunday was between Roadhouse and Casa Loma.

Some fielding errors proved to make a big difference in this contest, which saw Roadhouse take an early 4-0 lead. Casa Loma battled back later on and at one point closed the gap to one run, but the final score ended up being 9-5 in Roadhouse's favour.

"As the weeks have gone on, the competitiveness is really starting to come up a few notches," said Roadhouse player Mike Tuton. "We haven't had a fastball league in 12 years, so we are enjoying every minute of it."

League action will resume next Sunday when Roadhourse battles Chilkoot Steel and Casa Loma takes on Cinderwood.

All games are played at the Pepsi Softball Centre's Diamond Two, starting at 5:45 p.m.