Tim Kleedehn was supposed to be fishing last weekend.

Instead, the Brew Crew player-coach found himself scrambling to pull his team together to compete in the Whitehorse Co-Ed Slo-Pitch League’s Div. 4B opening tournament.

On Sunday, his team finished as tournament runner-ups after dropping the championship final 18-15 to the Crowe MacKay Write-Offs.

“We’ll take silver,” Kleedehn chuckled post-game.

“To be honest, I was a little bit disappointed. I thought we were going to be blown out, and I had to cancel my fishing plans.

“But I guess now it was worth it. Everyone played awesome and I’d give MVP honours to the entire team.”

The Brew Crew went undefeated in the tournament – save for the final – playing the minimum four games.

The Brew Crew is brand-new to the local slo-pitch league, which boasts a record 58 teams in five divisions this season, totalling 870 players.

“We have zero experience,” Kleedehn said. “Some of us here have never played ball in our life.”

In fact, the team was so late coming together that Kleedehn’s brother Logan initially fronted the entirety of the registration fees to get the team signed up in time.

Meanwhile, the Write-Offs started off hot in the final, scoring two in the first, four in the second and two more in the third for an early 8-1 lead.

The team would pile up seven additional runs in the fourth and fifth, before adding three more insurance runs in the final innings to put the game out of reach.

Mike Birkett scored four runs in the game, while Mark Pike had three.

“This is a good start to the season and we can carry on,” said team rep Nicole Duncan.

Crowe MacKay found just the right ingredients of competent pitching, solid defence and quality babysitters in the dugout to win the title.

Div. 4B-leading Northwestel was also not a threat as they were bumped up to Div. 4A for the opening tournament.

Joining Duncan in the winner’s circle were teammates Evan Coty, Tim Darling, Alicia Heynen, Dave Heynen, Corey Kisser, Taylor Morrison, Nolan Pattison, Thoa Pattison, Brooke Romanuik, Carly Rudolph, Miranda Staley, Danielle Swift, Sean Wilson, Brittany Yuill and Paul Zylstra.

The Write-Offs dropped their first game of the tournament to Goody’s Gas but later rebounded to beat them on their way to the final.

Meanwhile, after plating just one run in the first three innings, the Brew Crew made the Write-Offs work for their victory, sending five batters around the bases in the fourth.

After scoring two runs in both the fifth and sixth, the Brew Crew added five more runs on a two-out rally in the seventh, eventually getting the tying run to the batter’s box before the Write-Offs finally recorded the third out.

Other teams participating in the tournament were the EMCO Eliminators, Gold Pan Slayers, Ta’an Keyi, Whitehorse Massage Therapy Scrubs and WPM Eagles.

The Div. 4A and 4B finals took place simultaneously on the two Pepsi Softball Centre diamonds.