Slo Pitch is the goofy, unapologetically queer softball mockumentary we didn’t know we needed. The first two episodes of the Canadian comedy series dropped on Crave today, and audiences will finally get to meet The Brovaries, a team of lovable misfits led by Coach Joanne (Jess Salgueiro). Fresh off a breakup, with her ex playing for a rival team, Joanne is desperately trying to steer her wayward players towards a victory. 

“She’s a hopeless romantic. She is earnest with a capital E. She’s a wannabe jock. The jury’s still out on how good of an athlete she is. She’s competitive, but it’s just in the love of the game. She really does love sports, and she loves her community,” says Salgueiro. 

Coach Joanne was a nerve-wracking role for Salgueiro to step into. Not only was it her first time playing the lead role in a TV series, but she was also the new kid on the block. Before Slo Pitch found a home on Crave, it was a web series. Co-creators Karen Knox, Gwenlyn Cumyn, and J Stevens made two seasons of the web series with many of the same cast you’ll see in the Crave series, including Chelsea Muirhead, Amanda Cordner, Lane Webber, and Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah. But when the series was adapted for television, the role of Coach Joanne opened up, and Salgueiro stepped up to the plate. 

“I was hyper-conscious that I was the new person on the team, so to speak. But this cast is so warm, so welcoming, so much fun…and they just really welcomed me with open arms.” 

Slo Pitch’s cheery title sequence introduces you to The Brovaries—an equal parts wacky and charming slo pitch team that has finished last place in their league six years in a row. There’s Ann, the bisexual stoner, Boris, the German beerhound, Sasha, the team sweetheart, Lee, the virgin, Mel, the ex-pro, and Zari, the pragmatic straight one. They have their quirks, but they also feel like a real group of friends that you might run into goofing around on a Mississauga baseball diamond. Add some beer, bizarre hijinks, and of course, girls kissing—and you’ve got an episode of Slo Pitch. 

“At times I felt like it’s Trailer Park Boys meets A League of Their Own,” Jess says. “If people are down to clown, I think that they’ll be into the show.”

Since Crave announced the series last year, there has been significant buzz around Slo Pitch. Another queer sports series is coming out of Canada—does that mean we’re getting the sapphic softball version of Heated Rivalry? Not exactly—Salgueiro warns us that we should expect a lot less sex appeal.

“Our show is so different. It really is a comedy, and I hope that people can see that this is also a valid queer story in a different way,” she says. “This is so much more about friendship and found family than anything else.”

But still, there are definitely some aspects of Slo Pitch that fans of the hit sports drama will appreciate. “There are some moments of unrequited love in this show. I also think there’s some moments of requited love. There’s a level of tension,” Salgueiro says. “If [you] want to watch some people who find each other in a sports space, and sort of create these small little ecosystems among each other, I think [you’ll] like it.”

 

Heated Rivalry fans will also recognize some familiar faces. Emily Hampshire, who plays Joanne’s ex, Leanne, was recently cast as Vanessa in Season 2 of Heated Rivalry. Another crossover is Nadine Bhabha (Elena in Heated Rivalry), who briefly appears in Slo Pitch, and was also a writer for the series. 

And like Heated Rivalry, Slo Pitch is truly a showcase of Canadian talent. You may recognize some of the cast members from other recent releases—Muirhead from the Netflix medical drama Pulse, Cordner from the barrier-breaking series Sort Of, or Webber from Knox’s ode to 2000s indie music, We Forgot to Break Up. “I’ve always felt that we have amazing talent here…it’s not always been supported the way that it could have been,” Salgueiro says. “I think it’s a really exciting time to be creating Canadian content…people are hungry for Canadian stories.”

The magic of Slo Pitch is how this talented ensemble comes together so effortlessly. The heartfelt friendships, drunken hijinks, secret yearning, and sloppy makeouts all feel real—and really funny. From intentionally awful makeovers to sexy car washes, the team is always up to something wacky—and always has a blast doing it. With so many antics happening on screen, we had to ask Salgueiro what it was like on set. 

“There was a lot of breaking— a lot of laughing,” she says. Herself, Knox, and Emma Hunter (who plays Barb, the team’s tightly-wound sponsor) were the biggest culprits. But amidst the ball-throwing and fits of laughter, there was also a sense that something really special was being made. “The vibes were very high. A lot of our crew was queer, trans. It felt like everyone really was taking an ownership over what we were creating,” she says. 

It’s rare for a show to have more than one token queer character and an almost entirely queer crew. It’s another thing to love about Slo Pitch—the queer joy of it all, both in front and behind the camera.

“It means so much to be part of a show like this,” Salgueiro says. “You don’t always see queer characters get to just be silly and funny. A lot of times you have queer stories that are about coming out or about being marginalized, and all of that is so important and so, so valid. But I think there’s also something really special about seeing your community being really joyful and really silly!”

When we spoke a few days before audiences would be welcomed into the wild world of Slo Pitch, Salgueiro told us it was an honour to lead a television series for the first time. And to do it all with a loving team, nonstop laughs, and a whole lot of sapphic pride? That sounds like a home run to us. 

“It’s thrilling as an actor to get to lead a story. To have so much of the story resting on your emotional arc is a lot of pressure, but it’s also such a gift,” she says. “It was a really important part of my career thus far. It has given me a lot of experience, which then gives me a lot of confidence. I’m so excited and so scared, of course, for the world to see it.”

The first two episodes of Slo Pitch are streaming now on Crave. New episodes drop on Fridays.