Whitehorse’s Yukon Titans held on to win the A division women’s Dustball title Sunday.

The team, which placed third in 2013 and 2015 and second in 2014, now has a championship to its name.

The Titans beat Juneau’s Killer Bees 8-6 in a tight game on diamond 1 at the Pepsi Softball Centre Sunday afternoon.

With the hot sun beating down, the Titans got off to an early lead and were able to hold on to it for the rest of the game.

The Titans won both their pool 1 games, while the Bees also won their pool 2 games, facing each other for the first time this year in the first knockout game Friday.

The Bees won the close match-up by two runs.

“It was not easy,” said Katie Damian, Killer Bees team captain. “We expected that this was going to be a tough go-around. We did not expect this to be an easy game at all.”

The Titans then faced the Inuvik Angels Saturday morning in the double elimination tournament, beating the team that will represent the Northwest Territories at next month’s nationals.

Meanwhile, the Bees beat Fort McPherson’s Rebecca’s Roses, setting up a semifinal Saturday afternoon between the Roses and the Titans.

The Titans won, allowing a rematch with the Bees in Sunday’s final.

Sunday’s finals were scheduled back-to-back on diamonds 1 and 2, making for double headers for women playing both on co-ed teams and their ladies’ teams.

The scheduling was difficult for Damian, who had athletes playing on other diamonds during the Bees’ games.

The first game the team played, a co-ed game was running simultaneously, making for a mad dash to find more players for her team.

“It was one of the more stressful tournaments that I’ve attended,” said Damian.

But in the end, it all worked out, “excellent,” in fact, said Damian.

The pick-up player, “ended up being a valued member,” she said and helped them get to the finals, where again, the Bees had some switching around to do.

“We had a struggle to put together a different line-up, a different fielding technique. It worked out,” said Damian.

“Obviously they’re a good hitting team, so it wouldn’t have mattered anyways. They were just hitting the holes and that’s what was just killing us. You can’t do anything about good hits.”

Damian, who has been attending Dustball since she was born, said she has a lot of the respect for the Titans and that they’re one of the reasons the team keeps coming back.

“We love the challenge and they brought that,” she said.

Damian admires the team that Titans manager Roni-Sue Steinhagen has put together for this year’s nationals.

“She’s got the game down to a T and she’s found a great crew to get her this far,” she said. “It was amazing just to play a team like that.”