I had a great day getting out of Penang today and heading an hour and a half south to the state of Perak where we had our first day of games in a beautiful setting buttressed up against some mountains in the town of Taiping.

Softball may not be the first sport you think of when you think of Malaysia, but it is quite popular among the secondary schools and colleges, especially on the mainland of the peninsula.

Both girls and boys play the fast pitch variety – baseball is unfortunately not to be found. The overall level of competition is not too strong, but you do run into your occasional “stud” team which is a cut above the rest. Tournaments are run on the zone level and then move to state and nationals. The team that crushed my team in the state semi-finals last year went on to win nationals. They had a talented pitcher who dominated.

Today’s games were just for fun and experience. We played two secondary schools and one one vocational college. We took two out of the three games.

But what I enjoyed more than winning was just being on the field once again. Sweating and soaking in the sun. Watching the enthusiastic girls try their best, learn on the fly, and get along great with the other schools.

It was a fun day of competition, and a nice outing away from the normal routine of my life.