Written by: Aravind Madabhushi
Edited by: Angelina Grace Pandiman
Photos by: Eusoff Works
Line 1: Taka, Kelly, Emma, Divakar
Line 2: Ben, Charmaine, Sheryl, Tienyu
Line 3: Justin, Bowie, Dawn, Siheng
Final score: TH 21-20 EH
Tensions ran high amidst field 3 this morning as our softballers, led by their captain Benjamin Khoo, took the field to avenge their loss to TH during the group stages. The line-up featured the likes of Team Singapore players Charmaine and Bowie, as well as the token LYLC Taka. The previous time that we had met TH was just over a week ago, where our softballers walked away with a narrow loss of 12-11 to TH. Spirits were high despite the burning hot afternoon sun, evident from our team playing music during their warmup and cheering each other on even before the game began.
The first innings began strongly in our favour, as our first line began to smash TH’s pitches far downfield, quickly putting 7 runs on the scoreboard. TH managed to deliver a strong response in return, but their innings were cut short at 5 runs with a triple play by our fielders, putting Eusoff in the lead early on in the game, with a score of 7-5 to Eusoff.
Undeterred by our lead, TH managed to step up their pitching game, and managed to hold our second line, which consisted of very strong batters, to only 1 run. With good pitches and excellent fielding from TH, they began batting their second innings with only a 3 point deficit to overcome, and overcome they did. Despite valiant efforts from our fielders, TH managed to put 7 runs on the scoreboard, bringing the score to 12-8 to TH moving into the next innings.
As a powerful response to a relatively run-dry previous innings, our third inning took it upon themselves to punish every error the TH fielders made, capitalizing on every dropped ball and fumble. Despite TH’s efforts to maintain their strong lead, our batters managed to walk off the pitch with the full 7 runs, bringing the score back up to 15-12 to us, as the bottom half of the innings began. While pitcher Justin Cheng made a few early strikeouts, TH never gave up despite being 2 outs down, and managed to overcome our strong fielding to walk off the pitch with 7 runs of their own, bringing the score to 15-19 to TH.
Bowie erupted in triumphant cheers as she managed to get back home safely
The second half of the game saw the return of Taka’s line, where they began with a strong performance of 2 successive runs, but this was quickly put to an end by TH’s line 1, led by their pitcher and captain Nicole, who managed to maintain their lead by holding us off to only 2 runs. However, our line 1 did not give up, and managed to answer back with an excellent fielding performance of their own, to hold TH to 2 points too, bringing the score to 17-21 to TH.
our LYLC Taka caused TH to quiver whenever he stepped on the field, where their cheers fade away
The fifth innings brought back Ben’s line back onto the pitch, where TH were left stunned with our batting performance as Ben, Charmaine, Tien, and Sheryl showed no mercy to TH. As every ball flew out of bounds, we managed to bring more and more runners home. However, TH remained focused on their job, and with a few cheeky force plays, and a beautiful catch by Rachel from TH (who managed to stop Tien’s meteor downfield), ended our innings early with only 2 points to show, leaving Eusoff worried. However, this worry was soon turned into hope as a brilliant fielding performance by Ben’s line managed to get all of TH’s batters out without even a single one of them reaching even second base. As we saw the first clean sheet of the game, our supporters online and players on the field began cheering louder, as the game was maintained at a 2 point difference of 19-21 to TH, as we went into the final innings.
perfect fielding from line 2 that got every single TH batter out
The final innings began with Si Heng’s line batting, where a beautiful early run from Eusoff began to put worry on TH’s faces. However, this changed very soon as a flurry of excellent balls and textbook fielding from TH managed to get 2 of our batters out. As Bowie walked onto the field as EH’s last hope to defend our title, the crowd went silent in anticipation. A brilliant pitch from TH was met with a beautiful hit from Bowie, but all eyes shot up to the sky and back down, as the parrot-green softball settled snugly into the TH fielders glove, and not even a second later, the TH crowd erupted in cheer, signalling the end of a wonderful and exciting game. The title was Temasek’s, with a narrow score-line of 21-20.
Despite their loss, the team remained very sportive and it was clear that they were all very proud of each other for their performance this whole season. Kudos to Temasek for being such great opponents, and convening for organizing the event. Special mention to our poor little umpires who had to make many many tough calls today, TM Jeyin and Sports D Beh for their support (and bubble tea lol thanks Beh), and of course, Eusoff Softball for a brilliant and beautiful performance today, and a very enthralling season. It was truly a pleasure covering for softball this year.
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