23 April 2005

ONES:
Pitch: Indiana/Hassie, Catch: Yogi, 1st: Coach, 2nd: Indiana/Rickey/Hassie, 3rd: Swat, SS: Boo Boo, OF: Sandman, Mary, Rube, Horfun, Hassie/Rickey

TWOS:
Pitch: Prof Zen, Catch: Guppy/Gino, 1st: Heidi, 2nd: Princess, 3rd: TH/Generalissimo, SS: DT, OF: TH, TS, TK, Fei, Mrs Fei??

Game 1: ONES 11 : TWOS 14
Game 2: ONES 2 : TWOS 5 (5 innings)

The TWOs broke out some brand new brooms as they swept the ONEs in two closely contested games. Both games went down to the wire, and the winner was only decided at the bottom of the ninth. Neither side gave any quarter, and the competition was tough, bringing out the best in each individual. However, the spirit of SAS was there, and generous calls were given by both teams to their opponent. A great sense of fairplay prevailed on the field, and it was as usual, another great day for Saturday Softball.

Settling at home, the ONEs had a hard time coming from the TWOs bats, with the TWOs surging ahead by 7 unanswered runs in the 4th inning. The TWO's defence was on fire, with the left side of the infield stopping everything coming their way, and the TAN brothers in the outfield, catching every flyball in sight. The ONEs finally broke the egg with a solo run home by Rickey (the choice of "run home" rather than "homerun" will be made obvious later). The TWOs answered with 3 runs to take a 10-1 lead, but the ONEs rallied hard and scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th to reduce the lead of the TWOs to 3. The TWOs did not rest idly on their lead, and built on it, with 2 runs scored in the 7th, 1 in the 8th and 1 in the 9th. Not one to take a beating lying down, the fought back with infatiguable spirit scoring 2 in the 8th, but when it came down to the crunch in the bottom of the 9th, the ONEs only managed to score 2 before they were shut out for a 14-11 loss.

Game 2 saw the TWOs taking the homefield advantage. The ONEs still sore from their first game loss, came out spitting and snarling, scoring 2 good runs to take the lead. The TWOs answered with 1 run at the bottom of the 2nd and another 3 runs at the bottom of the 3rd to take a 4-2 lead. But the ONEs were not to be dismissed. They put together some magnificent hits to bring the score back to a tie going into the bottom of the ninth. Just when it looked by the game would go into extra innings, the middle of the lineup consisting of TH, DT and Fei strung together a string of singles for Fei to finally hit the RBI for TH to score and win the game for the TWOs.


It was one of those highlight reel game days, as there were so many plays deserving of recognition and rememberance. The first contraversial calls of the game came at the top of the 3rd, when a razor sharp three-base drive along the rightfield line was hit by Heidi. Ironically, her own team called it foul, and it was Yogi the bear formally known as Monk that called the ball fair, sending Heidi to third. The favour was returned by the TWOs when a similar three-base linedrive was sent shooting right down the wrong side of the leftfield line. TH could not get to it in time, and a relay was started from TH to DT to the Generalissimo to try to tag Rickey out at third. Rickey intercepted the relay (from watching too much soccer???) from DT to the Generalissimo, kicking the ball into foul territory, and he turned home to score. His entire team called the ball foul and asked him to "do it again", but the TWOs graciously gave him the run (primarily because we did not really want to see Rickey drop dead from heart failure). A check of the video-replay found that the ball was indeed foul. Rickey definitely managed to run home, but it was not a home run

Play of the day came from Rube's tying run at the top of the 9th of the second game. Caught in a textbook hotbox between 3rd and home, Rube outran all the fielders as they closed in on him, and as Rube has always managed to get away from hot boxes, a slip by Fei resulted in a late throw, and it saw Rube evading the tag by Prof Zen and scoring at home. The rundown was so perfectly executed, even the old coach would've been proud. 3 players at third and 3 at home, to box in the runner, and Rube ran the evasion perfectly as well. One of the best plays in the history of SAS.

SAS saw a strikeout after a 6 month dry spell, we finally got a taste of that sweet, sweet strike-out-beer from Guppy's swinging strikeout.

MBP : Yogi
Gold Glove : The Tan Family
Biggest Bat : The Generalissimo (A deep HR into centerfield in the bottom of the 8th)
Best Play : Rube gets out of another HotBox
DY play of the day : Too many to single out one
Bonehead Play : Rickey's Run Home