400 players from 20 teams take part in Slowpitch Softball Carnival

Contributed by Kim Tham

Anchorvale Fields, Sunday, October 17, 2010 — A different kind of passionate OctoberFest happened at Anchorvale Field @Sengkang West this month. Softball enthusiasts of varying ages batted and fielded against each other at the 5th Slowpitch Carnival over two weekends.

This is the biggest slowpitch event in Singapore with a total of 20 teams attracting 400 players from the slowpitch community.

The annual fund-raiser Carnival by the Singapore Baseball and Softball Association (SBSA) women’s national team was given a boost this year with NTUC U Sports joining as co-organiser.

The finals of the Recreational and Intermediate categories on Sunday, October 17, 2010 saw each of the three NTUC U Sports teams garnering trophies and two Best Male Slugger Awards.

U Sports Diamond Warriors — the pioneer team who debuted only last year at the Carnival — brought home the second prize. The Warriors had high hopes to win in the Recreational Category but were thwarted by their training partner, NTU Hall 11.

The Warriors had previously beaten this very team during the round-robin games. But alas, NTU Hall 11 managed to turn the tables on the Warriors with a home run in the last inning to win 7-6. Nevertheless, the Warriors were still in high spirits as Mohamed Fadhil Bin Hamid, who took two for the team when he was forced to dive twice at the bases, won the Best Male Slugger award (Recreational category) for the second year running.

In the Intermediate category, the U Sports Two (US2) and U Sports Three (US3) won second and third placing respectively. Both teams were made up of NTUC and nEbo members.

US3 first played together at the June’s SoftballMania. Comprising of softball alumni, US3’s Captain, Keong Yi Hao, described his team as being “generally better at fielding than batting.” This rang true as US3 only conceded a single run to the Hudson Hotshots (a headhunting firm), securing their third placing with a 4-1 win.

In contrast, US2 had a star report card — winning all their matches right from the get-go — but falling at the final hurdle when they lost to Team Angels. Speaking before the final, team captain Choong Wenling predicted that “It will be a very tough fight as the Angels are heavy batters while we take time to warm up (to batting).”

True enough, US2 were unable to score as their infield hits were caught well by the Angels.

US2’s key pitcher, a NTUC U Live member, Mr Jerry Ng, a.k.a “Coach Jerry”, also attributed the loss to excessive fielding errors. This medley of experienced softball players however are not easily beaten down — US2 recovered some of their X-factor and held their ground well at the final inning, conceding no bases at all as one by one the Angels’ batters were ousted at first base.

As the US2 team were taking a picture with their second-place trophy, Andrew Han has yet another reason to smile as he took home the Best Male Slugger award (Intermediate category). When asked about his performance, his teammates were quick to exclaim in open admiration: “His win was well-deserved (as) he is a solid hitter. With the exception of the final match, he was hitting home runs.”

Slowpitch softball is gathering momentum in Singapore as “it is a sport for all, from 16 to 66 years old,” quipped coach Jerry. Indeed, anyone can pick up the game and play.

Norman and Simon Soh, twins at a local polytechnic, shared: “We have always been curious about softball but unfortunately our school did not have a team. So we joined U Sports.”

The Carnival will be ending off during the last weekend of October. The Competitive category will see some of the most serious and experienced teams from Singapore (U Sports All-Stars & Old Boyz), Japanese community teams (Abusan, AMK United & Hitachi) and Malaysia (Penang Twisters) slugging it out on October 30th and 31st at the same venue.

Final Results

Recreational Category
Champions: NEXUS Weekenders
2nd: NTU Hall 11
3rd: U Sports Diamond Warriors
4th: NTU Hall 14
5th: Singapore Management University B
6th Place: Singapore Polytechnic

Intermediate category
Champions: Angels
2nd: U Sports Team 2
3rd: U Sports Team 3
4th: Hudson Hotshots
5th: Singapore Management University A
6th: Eagles NUS Eusoff Hall
7th: Old Raffles Alumni
8th Place : NTU

Individual Awards
Recreational category – Female SLUGGER : Joan Yang (NEXUS Weekenders)
Intermediate category – Female SLUGGER : Baral Nimpa Villafranca (Angels)