Filipina softball player Zenny Badajos of Team Fate has been
named the batting champion of the Women’s B group in the 2015-2016 season of
the Hong Kong softball open league.
The former UP Diliman varsity and Philippine National Team
player averaged 0.786 to beat the best sluggers from eight local teams that
Fate fought for league honors last season.
She beat her closest rival, local player Pang Wai-ting of
Villas, who finished with a 0.727. Flora Cheung of Red Castle Infinity was
third at 0.688.
Badajos, a domestic worker like her teammates in Fate, said
she did not expect to be the champion.
“It was really unexpected. It was based on the performance
statistics that they (Hong Kong Baseball Association) collected last season,”
said the 30-year-old player who had been playing for both Fate A and Fate B for
the past year.
“I did not expect my batting average to be high. I just
played, did my best, enjoyed the game and loved my softball.”
When team manager Law Wai-ho decided to have two teams for
Fate after the 2014-2015 season, team captain Don Gaborno asked Badajos to help
her train the newcomers and get them ready for the season.
Then as the season got under way, Badajos was assigned to
coach Fate B at the same time that she played for both teams.
Being a seasoned diamond warrior, Badajos also played for
the all-Filipina baseball team Philippine Sluggers and helped it win the
championship in the B league with consistent performance as batter and pitcher.
This season, Fate is back to being a single team as some players
have left for other sports, leaving the side with just 17 players. This forced
all players in the A team to return and beeef up the B team
Fate was fourth last season, and Badajos said the team is
focusing on the existing players from the previous B team to hone their skills
and strengthen them for next season, when there would be enough players to make
two teams again.
“Our priority is to field the original B team members to
improve their performance and be ready so that if we climb back next season to
the A group, then our team, would be solid,” said Badajos.
Fate will be playing its first game of the season on Dec 25.
The Filipinas expect to see fireworks on the playing field when they pick their
bats once again.
