The winning 1st team Softball
On Saturday 12 September, the Westville 1st team Softball participated in the KZN top schools tournament at Queensmead stadium.
The first game was against Hillcrest. The coach Chester Comins chose to rest most of his seniors, keeping them fresh for later games and played most of the juniors in the squad play. They performed above their ability and beat Hillcrest 14-0.
The second game was against a development side from Kokstad called Shayamoya High School. It was very encouraging to have development sides involved in the tournament. Westville ended up winning the game 19-2.
The last pool game was against Toti and again the junior players were entrusted with the job. They certainly did not let the coach down and played extremely well. Brendan Brooks pitched the best he had all season getting many strike outs. Westville won 17-1. This meant that they were through to the final against Glenwood.
The final drew a large number of spectators and there was a tense electric atmosphere hanging over the field. The first frame was very tight with the score being 2-1 in Westville’s favour. Dayle Freemantle, the team’s first choice pitcher and senior player, was in spectacular form starving Glenwood and getting vital strike outs.
Westville’s Timothy Lee who had just returned from a stint in Japan did not let the long trip affect his form. He struck a massive, spectacular home run in the 3rd frame which had the spectators on their feet. At the end of the game Westville emerged 6-2 winners. Westville only had 2 matrics in the starting line up which means that the junior players performed exceptionally well. This is very positive for next year as Westville will have a strong side again next year.
With this win, it means that the Highways boys will travel to Pretoria in December for the National tournament.