Softball!!

today was softball, the very sport which i picked up last year cos i thought its fun and cos of someone who played an impt part in my life. Irony is that i sticked to the sport this year and became the pitcher for Eusoff when i was merely a reserve last year. This year's team was lacking in spirit a little compared to last year's, mainly cos everyone was so busy with their own work and other IHG sports that they paid little attention to softball cos its like one of the last few events on the IHG calender... even i was guilty of that, i must say its really tough to juggle so many things and with DP ard the corner... training was made more scarce...

Early morning... Lahiru was banging on my door to wake me up, i was a dead log lying in bed, cos of the dance practice the previous night. I bet he was at the door at a good 15 mins, before i woke up... dazed.. cleaned up and washed up den i made my way down to SRC alone cos the team left earlier... Luckily, my sweetie was late too!! haha... but she saw me and gave me a lift to SRC, saving my precious energy from walking all the way there... (Thanks Sweetie!!) and another surprise was that Hongyan was actually Maria's classmate last time, no wonder she said she found me familiar..

Placed in the "Group of Death" together with the favourites, Sheares and KR, things actually dun look too good on our side, thou we still got a good team put together. The lack of training together made things look grimmer... Actually, i think most people tagged us as the favourites to be out in the first round. But we got something up on our sleeve in our first game against Sheares, we gave them a surprise by winning 8-4 with little errors in our fielding and in the next game against KR, we won 5-3 i think, putting us at the top of the Group of DEATH, and we are through to the semis playing Temasek. Well, as people say, the ball is round, anything can happen in softball, just like last year when we were favourites with so many experienced players and all, but our pitching let us down as we lose grip of the Gold. Against, Temasek, the supposedly weakest of the semi-finalists, we were playing well until deja vu, my pitching left me and we were in crisis just like last year... I din know changing my stepping made such a big difference to my pitching, during that barren run, i let in 10 runs... i just collapsed... such a total disaster...

But my teammates were damn encouraging... I could hear Andrea, Shawn whispering, "take it easy, Don't worry. We will get them out one by one" the whole time. Yingen and Lahiru were saying encouraging things as well... asking me to relax and all and Kerly, my sweetie, she was trying to encourage me from the sides and there was Darren as base coach asking me to take my time. Of course, last but not least, my golden-haired smiley catcher, who was very encouraging and trying to give me advice and asking me to be myself... When, i finally got a hang of the pitching and start putting the strikes in, it was already too late and i remembered myself telling Andrea "Its so late". Sigh.. Thanks guys, you all are a wonderful bunch... I was feeling quite bad at the end of it cos it was down to my pitching that cost us the game, it was a deja vu which i so badly wanted to avoid cos of last year's incident. This year's team meant more to me than last year's team cos maybe i played a bigger role wherelse last year, i was only a bit-part player. Lahiru said at the end, he was actually expecting us to play till 12 only cos he din think that we would have made it this far. Andrea echoed his sentiments and he said that i actually brought the team to the semis.. that was like "wow" what a compliment, but i guess it wasn't really true cos everyone has a role to play and i merely did what i had to do... I guess what was so memorable to me was that we beat the favourites and finished top of the group and i guess my proudest moment was when i striked-out KR's batter and silenced their team with my pitching and of course the photo-taking session with sweetie, Ying'en, Janice and Gracie at the end...

It was another case of so near-yet-so-far but this time round, responsibility was rested on my shoulders... the year 4s(Lahiru, Janice, Gracie, Andrea), i'm sorry that i couldn't gave you all a finals to play in.. Otherwise it would have added toppings on the ice-cream...

Team of 05-06, I got your names on the softball i brought home from the Temasek game... you guys are special to me.. :)

My email to the team:

Hello people,

i just wanted to end off the season with a little email... firstly, i
guess i would like to give thanks to Brian and Lahiru for being so
enthusiastic about the game and trying to organise friendlies and
trainings for us even though attendance was really terrible at times.
That was something that even i was guilty of. I guess partly its cos
of the way IHG was scheduled this year that Softball became a one day
event, and its like one of the last sports on the Calender, that
everyone decided to concentrate more on other games first. But
seriously, thanks Brian and Lahiru for being so patient and
understanding.

I guess we are a surprise bunch... we manage to make the semis with so
little trainings, i just there is a little factor of luck and of
course everybody's good play. Imagine if we trained a little harder,
we might have actually win it this year, thou that could become
reality if not for my pitching =P. Maybe like Lahiru and Andrea said,
they weren't really expecting to play after 12pm? I dunno, personally,
i thot we have a good team, plus we have Hongyan, i really thought we
could give anyone a run for their money and we showed it by beating
the favourites Sheares and KR. I guess that was the strawberry
toppings on the ice-cream for me...

Another thing is that, actually i felt quite bad for the Temasek game,
cos its my pitching that went off, that cost us the match, otherwise,
there was no errors in our play at all, remember at the second inning,
we actually shut them out? actually, we could have beaten them. I
guess for the seniors who played last year, it was a case of deja vu
for us, cos we lost the finals cos at one stage, Alex and Yueping's
pitching went off too... it was something which i was praying hard
that wun happen to me... but it had to come and by the time when i
actually picked myself up again, i know i was putting in all the
strikes, but i was whispering to Andrea that "it came so late".
Really, it felt like a heartpain cos its those kind of "it should have
been" situation, particularly after we topped the group of death and
got the semi-finals opponents that we wanted...

Seriously, i gotta thank everyone in the team for being so patient,
encouraging and not screaming at me... cos i let in 10 runs... haha..
thats seriously quite a disaster... special thanks to Andrea and Shawn
who were always beside me and asking me to relax and play my game,
Lahiru and Ying'en who were constantly giving words of encouragement
and the outfielders, Yash, Yuan, and Captain Brian who were damn
patient as well and Hongyan who was literary and metaphorically behind
me... (haha, private joke yah, Hongyan?) and of course people from the
sidelines, Kerliang, Roanna, Darren, Gracie, Weiyen, Weihan(my fellow
pitcher), Colin, Kimberly, Dinidu and of course our very nice team
manager, kept scores for us. I hear every word that you all shouted,
the encouragements and all... really, its just that i was really
trying to concentrate on picking up the pitching again, thats why i
didn't acknowledge. Last but not least, the golden-haired catcher
Janice, who was so patient and always telling me how off my pitching
was, cos i requested her to... She was complaining that i was damn
serious-faced... but well, i did make monkey faces and smiles at the
end when i finally got the pitching right again k...? I'm sorry, you
had to look at such a serious-faced me the whole day.. our winning
combi failed at the end cos one half couldn't pitch properly... haha..

On the contrary to what Lahiru said about me bringing the team to the
semis.. i think that was not very true lah, cos everyone got a role to
play and everyone just did their job, thats how we got in... I'm jus
glad everyone had fun today, though it could have been sweeter if we
made the finals... for the year 4s, i'm sorry i couldn't give u all a
finals to play in, otherwise, it would have been mango on top of the
strawberries toppings. But this year's team hold a special place in my
heart.. thanks guys for the memories and hopefully, we can play
softball again soon... though, i was hoping that we would have a
different day for each game rather than a carnival, cos it made
everything felt so short...

Ok, i think i am getting emo nemo... and the mail is already like damn
long... i shall end off here... We are gonna win IHG this year yah???
Oh, by the way, i kopped the match ball and all your names are on the
match ball and its sitting pretty on my table.. ;)

PS: i suddenly remembered that we cheered "EUSOFF!!! SCORE!!" just
when we were about to field in the disasterous second inning where
they had 10 runs... haha.. what an irony...

Your I-Need-to-Smile-more pitcher,
Jingpei =)