Raffles Girls’ secure C Division softball win over Fajar

Story and photos by REDintern Kelly Kuo.

Fajar Secondary School, Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - Raffles Girls' softball team proved their determination in aiming to defend their 2008 title with a convincing 24-5 win over Fajar Secondary School in the C Division Girls Softball Championship.

The two teams had met earlier this month at the Singapore Recreation Club softball carnival, with Raffles Girls' securing just a narrow 10-9 win. This time, however, the Raffles team took the match with a much more convincing score line with the fielding of their first choice pitcher, Ching Yee.

The first inning started off shakily for both sides as Raffles and Fajar conceded five and seven runs respectively. With some words of encouragement from the coaches from both sides, the girls entered the next inning with renewed confidence.

This was evident as Raffles proceeded to shut out the Fajar batters with some pinpoint pitching and tight fielding all around, conceding no runs at all. They then started to pile on the pressure by maintaining their composure in front of the home plate, swinging at only the good strikes and hitting the ball on the ground. Five runs were scored in the bottom half of the second inning.

The third inning saw the same superb defensive performance by the Raffles team, most notably an amazing reflex catch by third base Chew Li Ting, and then a series of pitching changes by the pressurised Fajar coach.

One of the pitchers, Clara, put up an excellent performance with consistency and speed, but unfortunately was not supported well by her fielding teammates. Several mistakes such as overthrows were made and the Raffles players did well to capitalise on these errors, advancing to the next bases.

After two more innings in similar fashion, the game was finally concluded 24-5 in Raffles' favour.

Fajar will now play Methodist Girls' school to determine the two teams that will enter round two of the Softball National Championships.