Softball Guys
By Wing SingThe IHG Softball season kicked off with a match against Hall 13, which was surprisingly, not worth the mention, since they were made up of random individuals who did not have any experience.
Our second match was against Hall 15, ever the experienced team and former champions 2 years ago. However, with their old guard graduated and newcomers still not as polished, we managed to take a victory over them despite the lack of players on our side. Having to call non-softballers down to fill up the team did not help with our morale given that we boast a 20-men team, more than enough to play 2 full teams. Thanks Shahul for lending us a hand in the match.
With that, we made it into the quarterfinals against a surprising underdog Hall 4 team. Some heated arguments occurred before our match as Hall 4 had already played 2 games before meeting us and wanted a rescheduling of match. However, having waited for close to 5 hours already, we found it ridiculous for such a request to be brought up. They gave in eventually and continued with the match held on our captain, Bryan’s softball career, as he made a very bold statement that he would quit if we lost the match.
With that said, wet conditions and other factors contributed to an extremely dismal performance of the team. Star players Si Kuan, Bryan and Zee had to make several inspiring speeches to bring the morale of the team up before we made a comeback victory of 5-4 runs, an extremely low-scoring match with the absence of major sluggers like Mustafa (who decided to extend his stay in Pakistan).
The very next day, the semi-finals were held in the late morning against last year’s runner-ups, Hall 11. The day didn’t start off well as pillar of the team, Bryan, met with an untimely family problem, which took him off the roster, as well as goliath on the outfield, Zhuo Song, down with chicken pox and of course, Mustafa being in Pakistan. Having close to half the first team being out of commission, we had to field a team comprising of young (and old) hopefuls with huge underlying potential but yet to be tested on the field.
With Sann shining brightly down on us, our star pitcher, Si Kuan gave a spectacular performance, pitching strikes after strikes, placing the ball at the ends of the strike zone which proved incredibly difficult for Hall 11 to get any good hits. The first inning ended with Hall 2 slightly in the lead, and we truly believed that we could win with a fairly green team.
However, things started to look bad as simple mistakes were made by both experienced and green players in the second inning. We allowed Hall 11 to close the gap but we managed to stay in the lead. Nonetheless, an incredible catch from Left Field Kin Sin boosted our morale and we went into the third inning.
Sadly, our weakened batting line-up proved to be our Achilles’ Heel as we succumbed in the third inning and narrowing lost the match 5-4. BUT, we held our heads high as we shook our opponents’ hands for we played a magnificent game.
Of course, we could not have gone so far without our faithful supporters who woke up so bloody early and cheered their hearts out.
With that said, the Hall 2 Softball team would like to pay tribute to our graduating batch of softballers. Zeeshan, Xin Ping, Alson and Ahmad, thanks for all the guidance you’ve given to us and for being the pillars of the team thus far. We promise to train extremely hard for next year’s IHG and bring everyone home in the finals.
We WILL make history, cheer for us Hall 2.
HALL TWO HALL TWO HALL TWO, OY OY OY!
