home run... next year.

as a sophomore, ive been knocked out of inter-hall softball in e preliminaries once again. and for e second successive year (im not sure how Hall IV did in e past), we lost our final pool match tt decides who join e pool toppers in e quarter-finals.

softball is a great but misunderstood game. e only appeal we can manage for new players is to say it's fun. seriously all softball seniors also duno how to attract new blood with other methods. sports like soccer and basketball are no-contests, but few people play softball and yet it's an inter-hall sport, hence all halls try to form a team, often out of sportsmen from other mainstream sports. but seriously, anyone can play this sport, and if ur a sportsman there would definitely be added advantage. so more often than not, strong halls are represented well by their sportsmen, while weaker ones are weaker coz their hall players arnt active enough in this arena.

i really think we have alot of potential in softball if we train hard and e right people come.

i couldn't make it for our first two matches. from what i heard, we were whacked by Hall II, although we fielded well against em and held em in e first inning. in our losers' pool match, e guys scrapped past Hall XIV in a 3-hour marathon after some cool pitching by david.

i was glad i could make it for this crucial match, so did e rest of e team. this time we had Hall X. we know we can beat em, and infact most of us were looking beyond this match. e level of confidence was much higher than last year. last time round, in e all-important third prelim match, our stronger all-round team was put to e sword by an excellent pitcher of Hall XIII. he pitched like someone possessed while we timidly held back our swings.

this time, we swung too much. u can say tt it's overconfidence in a way. we have quite afew heavy batters, but when it came down to crunch time, they were too anxious to swing tt bat. in e end, they were either striked out, or saw their flyballs killed by a good opposing outfield. we sent a starting lineup tt was supposed to bat well to give us a lead before better fielders like gary, weisiong and i would enter.

but e script changed. like i said, we batted poorly and changeover happened v soon. something worse happened. our strong infielders left their form at yesterday's friendly and screwed up many short hits. by e end of e first inning we were 5-0 down. only then did we wake up and turn on our game but it was still way short of e level we can perform at. we made a three-man swop to bolster e fielding, and after another inning, e team decided tt we need to score to keep us in e game. to score means to bat fantastically.

i wasnt fielding well today, and my batting has never been fantastic. in short, i was in poor condition, since fielding has usually been my stronger game. e captain, david, told us of e need to score. i looked around e players, and i straightaway knew i should step down for e good of e team. in our reserves we had some great batters. and i think e way i did so, made e job easier for david and e rest of e team as well. it was no time to get sentimental or be generous, e task at hand was more important. now tt i think back, i think it takes a big man to do sucha thing. to accept one's flaws, be selfless, and live for e common good. and im proud tt i was e one who gave way.

pressure. luck. composure. experience. practice. off-form. underperform.

those were e words thrown around at e end, either in all our heads or during debrief. sian.

but guys, like i said during our debrief, i think we have a great crop of players now as compared to last year, when i was a low-profile freshie who made e starting lineup in our inter-hall match even though ive never played e game before. tt was how stretched we were in this sport. although we liked e game, we couldn't form a starting 10 who were confident in softball. this time round, i saw tt we had 11, 12 able softballers, including 4 considerably steady bases. we need to keep our heads up and believe. if we train hard, there is alot of potential and fortunes can only go up.