ACS(I) & New Town Sec enjoy the Padang sunshine

Story by Lee Hwee Cheng

The Padang, Friday, June 8, 2007 – Playing at the Padang, right smack in the heart of one of the most breathtaking landscapes of Singapore was an experience to remember for a long time to come.  With the Esplanade and the sea on one side, the old Parliament House and tall office buildings of Shenton Way on the other side, and the grandiose St Andrew’s Cathedral completing the perimeter, it was truly a sight to behold.  For this reason, the Red Sports Crew thoroughly enjoyed our Friday morning, basking in the breezy warmth of a beautiful blue-sky day, watching a couple of softball games going on in the field as the busy traffic wheezed by in the background.  Of course, it helped that we had the shade of a big old tree to take cover under.

The Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) recently held their annual SRC Schools Softball Carnival for the under-16s over three days (8-10 June 07) and the Red Sports Crew made a trip downtown to check it out.

In the girls’ game that we caught,  New Town Secondary School narrowly edged Nanyang Girls’ High School 7-6 in three innings. 

New Town had kicked off the game by batting at the top of the first inning and moved quickly into a 3-0 lead with their confident and well-hit grounders while Nanyang struggled with some early jitters with their poor pitching and throwing.  But when Nanyang took the bats in the bottom half, they took over the lead as well and ended the first inning with a narrow 4-3 lead.

In the second inning, the New Town girls did themselves a hefty favour as they scored four runs.  A good hit far out to the left outfield by #13 Pegster resulted in an inside-the-park home run as well as a runner coming home from second base.  Scoring two more runs before they struck out as a side saw the New Town girls up by three at 7-4.

Luck, however, was not on Nanyang’s side in the bottom of the second inning.  Their first batter started promisingly for her team when she gained first base after hitting a strong ground ball with her first swing.  But the second batter struck out with a flyout and in the next play, the first batter got tagged out quickly when she tried to steal second base.  The third batter got on first base to bring some hope to her team again but the fourth batter hit a pop fly that, once again, was caught by New Town’s first base fielder.

Things took a sudden twist at the top of the third inning that threatened to shake New Town’s position.  With an improvement in the Nanyang pitching, the first three New Town batters were immediately struck out – no one got anywhere close to first base.  Scoring zero runs in this inning, New Town were still holding on to their 7-4 lead and Nanyang needed only four more runs to win the game.

The situation looked rosy to the Nanyang girls in the bottom of the last inning.  With three runners getting on base successively, it looked like a run was at least inevitable.  The fourth batter got called out, however, with a pop fly.  The fifth batter brought a teammate home but got thrown out herself, making the score 5-7.  With two players struck out and two more out on the bases, Nanyang looked a little too anxious to score quickly.  The next batter managed only to bring the third base runner home, gaining first base and allowing the second runner to steal third base. This narrowed the deficit to 6-7. But in the next play, the third base runner made the wrong decision to run home and got herself tagged out when she got stuck between third and home allowing New Town to win the game 7-6.

In an earlier boys’ game, Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) looked to have an easy time out on the field as they trounced Compassvale Secondary School 21-2.  They had led 7-0 after the first inning, and 16-2 after the second.  The overall winner for the boys’ category for the SRC Softball Carnival was Montfort Secondary School.  Taking second place was Peicai Secondary School, and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) had to settle for third.

Editor’s note:  We did not receive the overall results for the girls’ category.  So if you do know the final results, please do drop us a note in the "Comments" section.  Also, if you do recognize yourselves or any of your friends in these pictures, let us know too by dropping a note in the "Comments" section, and we’ll update the captions accordingly.  Thanks!