Six teams, including two Yukon squads, will take to the field at the Pepsi Softball Centre today for the Western Canadian Master Men's Fast-pitch Championship.

Nearly 100 of the best master's players in the west will compete in the event, which begins at 1 p.m. today and runs through Sunday.

With the popularity of slo-pitch on the rise for the past several years all across Canada, fast-pitch hasn't even been played in Whitehorse at a competitive level for several years, and the Yukon hasn't sent a rep fastpitch team Outside in just as long.

In earlier interview, Softball Yukon Executive Director George Arcand said the executive decided it was time to bring both the game and the championships back to the territory.

'It's always been there,' said Arcand. 'We have a large number of people in that masters group that have played it for years and we always have guys asking when it's going to come back.

'This opportunity came up, so we said sure, let's do it.'

Arcand said there's also always been a large following in the Yukon as far as spectators of fast-pitch, and he expects to get huge fan support for the masters championship this weekend.

Softball Yukon has spent the past year getting everything ready for the event, rebasing the Pepsi Softball Centre, since bases for fast-pitch are shorter than the ones used at the complex for slo-pitch, repairing fences and redoing the infields at the complex.

The championship was originally supposed to be both men's and women's masters, but the interest on the women's side just wasn't there.

Arcand had originally projected 10-15 teams from Outside (both men's and women's) would hit the territory, but admitted the fact Yukon hasn't been sending teams to championships down south for a number of years may have had an impact.

Still, squads from Alberta and B.C. will join the Yukoners.

The teams taking part in this weekend's masters fast-pitch championship are as follows:

Andre's Masters

Norlan Dental Masters

NE Alberta Selects

High Prairie Playboys

Kal Tire (Whitehorse)

Roadhouse Pirates (Whitehorse)

While Softball Yukon is busy organizing this weekend's event, they are also busy arranging to host additional championships in the future.

The 2007 slo-pitch coed national championships and the 2007 masters men's championships will take pace in Whitehorse next August and Yukon is slated to host the Softball Canada annual general meeting (AGM) in November 2007.

Also, the Yukon Convention Bureau recently put together a bid to host the junior world softball championships in 2008.