Auckland Interzone Softball Champs

The vans were ready and loaded. The year 7 girls in one van and the 8 girls in the other. At our softball tournament on Thursday, we were aiming to be the best of the best at the softball Auckland champs held at Wesley Intermediate in Mt Roskill. I could see that the fields were all split into sections and the batting place was guarded by gates. That made it easier for Jay'Lee to get the when she played at back-stop.

I was an outfielder alongside Huelo-Ata. Brooklyn was supposed to be an outfielder as well, but took  the job as sub on the first game. We were playing against Wairau Park. Our captain Jay'Lee managed to get us to field first. I pulled my glove onto my hand and ran out to field. Rita (our pitcher) lined the ball up with Jay'Lee's glove. The first few times were not her best pitches but once she got the hang of it, she was ok. "3 out." The umpire had indicated that it was our time to bat. In our batting order we sat on the wet grass and watched to see if the other team was good and they were! I was 7th in our batting order so I had to wait a while until it was my turn. Rita, Jay'Lee, Mary and then Huelo-Ata.  Three of them  had a bat but got out while on bass 2 or 3. "Side Away."

The sun rays beamed down on me and it was hot! My hat was no help either. The other team hit the ball and made it home a few times but it was enough to win. In the end we didn't celebrate with victory but we still tried our best. This went on for the next game as well against Mansel. We lost against them too. It was fine though and we all still had hope.

"Do you think we are going to win?" Brooklyn and I were chatting on the way to our next game. Our opposition team was Royal Oak Intermediate.  They looked pretty tough but I reckoned we could have won against them. And we did! Our first victory of the day. We won because they didn’t have the best pitcher, but they had great fielding. They had to be the nicest team we played in that tournament.  

At the end we played 5 games. We won 2 and lost 3. We came 7th out of the whole of Auckland city! Even though that wasn’t the result we were hoping for, but at least we had placing. The tournament was full of highs and lows but I thoroughly enjoyed it.