Fort Street CHS Softball

On Thursday 24 March Fort Street’s courageous and eager softball team ventured to the fields of Epping to partake in the CHS knockout competition against Galston High School. Despite COVID scares knocking out Coach Wilkinson from attending, and torrential rains threatening to keep most of Sydney’s playing fields looking like swamps, somehow the heavens parted sufficiently for both teams to get to arrive and begin their warmup.

In their special baseball uniforms, the Galston team seemed like the real deal. It was as if I had stumbled onto a scene from A League of Their Own, with feisty young women keen to demonstrate their batting and throwing prowess. Their pitcher began practising, and with a solid and intimidating “sooock” sound, her pitches began thudding into their catcher’s glove. Then their coach walked over to arrange the start and casually mentioned that half their team played at representative for NSW…

So with some trepidation did our batters step up to the plate in the first innings. Unfortunately, none were able to score a run, although some showed that getting to first base was a possibility. Fort St’s innings closed with the score 0-0.

Relaying my concerns to Coach Wilkinson, he sent me some reassuring words of “Wait to you see Anika pitch”. Buoyed by his confidence, Despite Anika’s best efforts the first toss was met with a commanding “thwack” of a Galston bat, and I watched the ball sail over Fortian heads, into the outfield, scoring a home run. This didn’t look good I thought. The score moved to 0-3 by the end of the innings.

BUT, two things happened. Firstly, the Fort Street team did not give up and stayed positive. In the second innings, they kept their composure to catch a Galston fly ball, and then tag out 2 runners to make an elusive triple play. The score had moved to 0-4. Secondly, the heavens closed over and it began to rain. And with the rain came a very slippery ball to pitch. Indeed the Galston pitcher was no longer throwing guided missiles but tossing wildly, giving walks by either pitching 4 balls or hitting the Fort St batter. Whilst Ashley Kim can tell you getting repeatedly hit in the ankles by an errant and fast paced leather ball is not fun, I was impressed at the courage of the Fort Street team to stand their ground and take the hits. Despite multiple pitchers being used to stem the flood of walks being given, Fort St’s score raced up level to 4-4.

Suddenly, the Galston team looked rattled, and tried to use their knowledge of the rules to try and reassert their dominance. But Chloe O’Keefe was having none of it, arguing like a QC, defending Fort St’s position. Eventually order was restored and it was Galston’s turn to bat. Perhaps as a result of having a more practised squad, the Galston team were able to hit a winning run, claiming victory.

However, I was supremely impressed with the fortitude Fort St was able to show and the way in which they kept playing positively until the last pitch. I’d like to particularly note Nicole Orchard’s skill as catcher in slippery conditions, Stephanie Banh’s energy in the infield, and Joanne Zhou’s mum for driving the enormous kit bag to school. A final shout out to Coach Wilkinson for organising the game and encouraging the team.

Mr O’Neill