The University of Southampton Softball team has qualified for the upcoming national games.
Cody Deadman, our reporter went out and spoke to Kieran Meah, a UoS Softball player, who has previous experience playing baseball and cricket.
When asked about how it was to play for the Mustangs, Kieran said “The way that we played is really good, and it was really fun to be able to do that, to be able to have fun, but also qualify for nationals was really cool to do.”
Transport for away games is integral for every university team, whether it be a away game to Cardiff or to Bournemouth, every team goes through away travel. We asked Kieran what the travel is like for the Mustangs.
“Playing away from home, it’s normally a early start, we went to Cardiff for an indoor softball tournament, and we left at 6:30 in the morning to get there, and everyone’s quite sleepy so the energy levels aren’t really there.”
Playing softball requires a lot of energy as it’s not just one game, they usually play multiple games in a day. Kieran explained the difficulty of this.
“Normally with Softball, you play a lot of matches, so normally 4-5 games at a time, cause they’re quite short, so it’s quite tiring, and after to have that social aspect is kind of nice.”
The physical side of softball is very important, as it requires a lot of movement, concentration and good reaction times, Cody asked Kieran about the physical aspect of the game.
“It’s [Softball] really good for exercise, theres a lot of running around, and I think some people underestimate how much running you actually have to do during a match, but I think just in terms of like fitness, it’s really good.”
In sports, we usually see male and female sports rather than combined sports, however in Softball, it’s different as all games are mixed male and female. Kieran spoke about how important that is, and its relevance.
“It’s [Softball] a mixed sport, so a lot of sports you play nowadays are male and female, but to actually have that mixed element is actually really nice, and have that inclusivity between everyone, which isn’t in many sports.”
