Coming off a drawn encounter against BMW in the previous round of matches, the Pattaya based Thai Tigers softball team needed to continue their improved form when they took on a much tougher test against MSPORT last weekend.
In the first game the Tigers got off to an uncharacteristically slow start and looked at a deficit of 8-4 after just 3 innings. MSPORT were only kept in touching distance thanks to some timely hitting from 3rd baseman Tao Kanjanawisut.
Tao Kanjanawisut – joint current home-run leader for the Thai Tigers.
After that 3rd inning it looked like the Tigers defense finally found its rhythm and kept the mighty bats of MSPORT quiet for the next 4 innings, restricting them to just 2 more runs, though the Pattaya offense couldn’t capitalize on a number of chances, with loaded bases in innings 4, 5 and 7. The final score of game one saw the Tigers on the end of a competitive but disappointing 10-7 loss.
The second game saw a much hungrier Thai Tigers team come out as the defense now seemed to be running perfectly and even the bats came to the party to see the team take a big lead after 4 innings of 7-1.
This was the sign for the mighty and oh so experienced MSPORT team to throw open their bag of tricks, though Bush League tactics might be a better word for it. They started behaving way out of line on the field of play in abusively arguing every call and some ejections should have been in line, though no disciplinary actions were taken but for a single warning to one of their players.
The Tigers players looked bewildered and in state of shock at all this verbal abuse on the field of play and lost their concentration completely, resulting in some uncharacteristic defensive errors and having the bats fall quiet. This saw the cunning MSPORT team crawl back into the game and steal it away from the Pattaya team on a walk off hit in the bottom of the 7th inning, winning the game 8-7.
Ideas of appealing this game were raised at first as the tying hit was actually made by a player who clearly should have been ejected from the game earlier due to some serious verbal assaults on the umpires. After some discussion the Tigers decided to accept this physical loss as a mental win and try to continue their level of play into the next set of games which will be against the even mightier Hit Squad team who currently have suffered only 1 loss, though that came against the Tigers earlier in the season.
