Hey,
So I joined Softball for SUKMUM (Sukan Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya) and sekaligus jadi wakil for my KK, Kolej Kediaman Kinabalu aka Kolej Kediaman Kelapan. I don't really do sports tau, so why Faiz, kau join softball? Well, I don't know if everyone ever heard of this game, but it's called rounders. It's basically a kampung version of baseball lah. This was my favourite game masa kecik kecik dulu, along with baling selipar. I would play these, every petang, during my primary school and early high school era. So, that's why I join softball sebab it's similar to my favourite childgood game.
Softball pula, as far as I know lah, difference dia dengan baseball is the way pitcher throws the ball. Softball baling bawah, baseball baling atas. Softball pitch dia dekat sikit, compared to baseball. Haa stuff like that lah, ada je more than that. Okay, our KK punya softball training actually tak banyak pun in a week, Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30pm to 11pm. Even though dua hari je, still rasa busy sangat sebab I have other things to do too like assignments, meeting project, training Feseni etc. so schedule jadi pack. I can't imagine those yang join sampai more than 10 projects, how lah korang can give commitment eh?
Alright, four days ago (26th November) was the tournament day. Now, this is where the story gets interesting. First game kitorang fight dengan 5th College (Dayasari), they are known for having superb athletes. Macam kilang proses athlete jugak lah that KK. Second game, fight dengan 9th College (Hornets). If I'm not mistaken, this KK terer with kesenian stuff sebab most of the students kat situ is from Pusat Kebudayaan. Third game pulak, with 6th College (Avicenna). This KK is exclusively for medic students only. So kat sini semuanya future doctor, pharmacist, surgeon, dentist etc. haha.
Now let me tell you about the first game, it was terrible. The Dayasari's pitcher memang no joke weh. Dia pitcher for MASUM (Majlis Sukan Universiti Malaya), so, ball dia memang laju nak mati. I think dalam sorang je kot dapat hit ball dia, the rest tu out sebab it was too fast. First game, we spend more time on fielding rather than batting/hitting. Even budak Dayasari pun made fun of us sebab kitorang memang terrible sangat bila lawan dengan diorang. Diorang naik bosan duduk dekat field sampai ada sorang purposely buka topi just so that dia di-out kan by Umpire and takyah duduk dekat field lol.
Second game, fought against Hornets. Okay, Hornets, diorang mediocre lah. We scored a point tho but once dah out and kena jaga fielding, our pitcher (which was different than the first game) did awful. Hornets daripada tak score apa apa, terus naik to 5 points sebab our pitcher kept giving 'ball' and buat Hornets dapat banyak free walk. Ni paling disappointed sekali sebab I think diorang punya level dengan kitorang, lebih kurang sama je except that our pitcher memang tak bagus compared to them.
Last game, againts the Avicenna. Masa ni semua orang dah koyak sangat. Dah dua game kalah and it was starting to rain masa tu. Dengan Avicenna, kitorang pernah friendly dengan dia tapi... lost 11-0 lol. So bila jumpa balik dengan diorang, we were like,
"So we meet again huh?"
Haha, now, Avicenna punya pitcher quite skilled jugak. Dia punya ball quite fast and the way dia pitch tu agak psycho and dramatic gitu. I was mesmerized jugak lah honestly. Tapi masa fight dengan diorang, hujan turun dengan lebat so we had to stop. Us, the KinaRhinos takde motivation dah nak continue playing. Ada yang suggest give up je lah, sebab memang nampak tak kemana. Tapi Umpire cakap if give up or tarik diri, kena barred from playing for two years. No way man, so we didn't. We waited for the rain to stop, and once dah stop, sambung main. Masa ni best haha, dengan berlumpur semua, duk slide slide sana sini tho I didn't have the chance to do so actually as I, well, tak sempat nak batting sebab kitorang cepat sangat out lol.
In the end, we lost all the game. Among all the opponents, I like Avicenna the most. Sebab diorang sangat humble. Eventho diorang powerful, diorang still kata,
"Eh no kitorang still got a lot to improve."
Good attitude! Hornets pulak gave us some advice regarding pitching. They said, pitcher ni macam jantung of the team. So kena ada pitcher mantap. As for the Dayasari, I have no comments other than I really envy the pitcher sebab the way dia pitch sangat relax and macam cikai cikai je, but still ball dia laju nak mati.
So, from the game, I can conclude that we lost because we lack of training. Lack of practice. Lack of experience. Both our pitcher also tak berapa skilled. As for batting, we were too eager to swing the bat even though the ball was too fast (should have bunt instead) or luar daripada range yang boleh hit. Fielding pulak, we were still clueless at to whom nak pass the ball. Tak alert sangat lagi satu. Catching pun tak sharp, still selalu miss, especially golden chance like flyball. Basically, we weren't ready to compete with anyone yet lol.
Anyway, I enjoyed the game. Kulit gua sunburn teruk. Do I wanna join again next year? Who knows. Maybe.
P/S: RAFF8 is the official name for 8th College's softball team whereas KinaRhinos is the official name for the athletes under 8th College.
