Catholic High overcome Orchid Park

SOFTBALL

National ‘C’ Division Championship 2007 (Boys)
Catholic High School vs Orchid Park Secondary School
Friday, 29 June 2007, at Catholic High School

Story and pictures by Red Sports reader, Mr Bernard Han, a teacher of Catholic High School. Thanks!

Catholic High School continued their winning streak with a 12-5 win over Orchid Park Secondary last Friday.

Catholic High’s Jerald (7) hits a homer. © Bernard Han

After the game on Wednesday, the Catholic High boys knew that another win today would put them in a good position to qualify for the second round.

Orchid Park started the game at bat, and were unable to score any runs as Catholic High pitcher Jerald (73) made full use of his change-ups to strike out all 3 batters. At the changeover, Catholic High scored two runs to take the lead into the second inning.

Catholic High’s Terence ready to swing at a pitch. © Bernard Han

The 2-0 lead proved to be insufficient as Orchid Park came back to lead 3-2 before proceeding to the bottom of the inning. The Catholic High boys were not in the mood to let up and promptly snatched back the lead with Jerald scoring a home run.

Once again, Orchid Park stood defiant as Orchid Park’s Jeckie (#7) batted the ball beyond Catholic High’s James (#23) at center field. James recovered quickly to relay the ball to Kayue (#29), and as his throw reached Tijoe (#4) at third base, Jeckie (7) was already three steps towards home. The final ball to Wee Kian (#37) at home plate was half a second slower as Jeckie scored the home run. Fortunately, that was all Orchid Park could muster and the score remained at 7-4 as Catholic High were held scoreless in their next at bat.

Kayue and Tijoe of Catholic High get ready to field the ball. © Bernard Han

Orchid Park managed to score another run in the fourth inning after an infield fly ball landed on the ground between Tijoe, Terence and Wee Kian. None of them made any effort to claim the ball and the runner came home amidst the confusion. Luckily for the boys, they realised their mistake and played aggressively to force errors out of the Orchid Park fielders and scored another five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to lead 12-5.

Orchid Park now had to score seven runs to tie the game or it would be over for them. Try as they might, the boys from Catholic High were in no mood to give in, especially after a good scolding from their coach at the interval. They conceded zero runs and ended the fifth inning victorious at 12-5 without having to bat.