NUS Open Review

Overall, our team batted 0.377 which is not bad from a statistical point of view. However, if we take out the 2 RI games, our team average drops to 0.296, with only 11 runs scored in those 4 games that we lost. That's an average of less than 3 runs per game, while conceding a total 45runs, an average of 11 runs per game). To make things worse, most of the batting average is contributed by William, Changyu and Shengwei (0.708, .500 and .333 respecitvely in those 4 games). The rest of the line up batted 0.167 in those 4 games. I think this proves that softball is a team game afterall.

In term of batting, the story is all about William's amazing run, hitting 11 out of 14 with an average of 0.786 AVG. Other than that, he also clinched the RBI title in NUS open for the 2nd consecutive time with 7 RBI. Having said that, last NUS Open's best batter Changyu, also had another consistent performance, finishing with 0.600 AVG for the 2nd consecutive year. In the HR category, we have 5 people in the HR club (William, Lionel, Liwei, Changyu and Alex) with Lionel clinching the HR title.

For fielding, I think it is a well known fact that we are not a strong fielding team. We committed a total of 17 errors in 6 games, an average of close to 3 errors per game. In the 4 games that we lost, we committed an average of 4 errors per game, and let in a total of 13 unearned runs that could have been avoided. That is an average of more than 4 unearned runs per game. Clearly, this proves that generally an error committed is as good as conceding a run. I think we really need to put in effort to improve our fielding. Strong batting wins you games but strong fielding wins you championship.

Pitching department also ran into problems this time round. Even though our pitchers were hoping to repeat the strong performance by Kenneth last year, luck is definitely not on our side, with 2 of our 3 pitchers nursing injuries. Alex was troubled with a back injury while Zhiguan had a swollen ankle. A combined ERA of 10.348 and opponent average of 0.358 are definitely a subbar performance from the pitchers. Let's hope that both Alex and Zhiguan can recover soon and resume training.

Even though we only managed a 4th position in this tournament, it is still a very enjoyable experience. For the first time, almost all players have their fair share of playing time. All but 2 players (Alex and Ronghan) have at least an average of one plate appearance per game and all players except Ronghan have either started or appeared in 4 games. I believe this tournament is a great exposure for everyone, especially for our new players.

Looking forward to the next tournament already...

By Alan Lo