A Year of Learning…

(Article by Javier Hernandez)

What started as a dream has become reality now. Toros, the team that began its history in the world of softball one year ago, is playing in the best league in Europe, the ESSL. At the beginning, all players of the team thought that the change from baseball to slowpitch softball would be simple. We always thought that slowpitch is more or less a simple version of baseball mainly played by seniors that doesn’t offer a game on a higher level. But this proved to be wrong.

After having played two tournaments (Reutlingen and Ljubljana), we have realized that the goal that we set before the start of the season – to reach the top 4 at the end of the championship – would be more difficult to achieve than expected. The adaptation to the way how the pitcher throws the ball, the strike zone and the proper swing at the time of hitting has become a nightmare in the head of each Toros player – especially after the tournament in Germany where the team was beaten on several occasions by their rivals. Wounded in their pride, the Toros did not give up and thanks to some advices from experienced players from other teams in the league (Coco, Darja, Marc, Toby), the team did some adjustments to earn the 1st victory in a game in the ESSL (15:7 against PGS).

The tournament played in Slovenia left us pleasant surprises: the role of team leader and pitcher Ernesto Pereira, the strong hitting of Jose Posada, Eisbel Rojas and Richard Vieira, and the speed on the bases of Rafael Ferrer. All these inputs plus the addition of other players who will join the roster for the tournament in Bern (Switzerland) will make us dream of reaching the fourth ranking in the next tournament.

Everybody is counting every minute and we are starting the preparations to host the first ESSL tournament in Switzerland on July 11th/12th.