Tanjong Katong Girls’ beat plucky Fajar to advance to B Division Softball final

By Marvin Lowe/Red Sports

Crescent Girls’ School, Wednesday, March 4, 2009 – In a rain-delayed encounter, defending champions Tanjong Katong Girls’ School (TKGS) beat Fajar Secondary 17-9 to advance into the B Division Girls Softball Championship final once again. Fajar had been the surprise of the tournament this year, defeating Raffles Girls 8-6 in their run to the semi-finals.

Right from the get go, TKGS did not go easy on Fajar. In the second inning, the TKGS batters piled on eight runs. This crushed the morale of the Fajar team, especially their pitcher Jiayu, who felt responsible for the runs conceded.

However, coaches Mr Steve Xie and Mr Marcus Liew did not give up on them. They didn’t blame the girls or scold them for the mistakes they made. Instead, they encouraged the Fajar team to take the match back and to focus on the game. This greatly helped the girls and they slowly got their self-belief back. They even managed to hold TKGS scoreless in the third inning.

However, TKGS continued to increase their lead, adding five runs in the second and two more in the last. By the bottom of the fifth inning, TKGS had amassed a lead of over 12 runs. It appeared to be a lost cause for Fajar but their coaches kept pushing them on and Fajar gave TKGS a scare when they scored five runs in their last inning.

Having made an earlier change to their pitcher by bringing on Kazuki, the TKGS coach decided to put the brakes on her erratic pitching. Asri, the starting pitcher, was then reintroduced to the game. She went on to snuff out Fajar’s last few batters to win the game for TKGS 17-9.