WAISTed (by Thom)

Sorry about the lack of a Monday Proverb yesterday. I had a good reason, honest.
This past weekend was the annual WAIST (West African Invitational Softball Tournament) event in Dakar. I got hooked up on a team called, appropriately enough, "The Leftovers". Our team was guys who wanted to play ball but for whatever reason weren't in a full-season team. We didn't have a lot of expectations going in but we had a great time. We had two games scheduled on Saturday and another 2 on Sunday against the other teams in our grouping. The top team from each grouping moved on to the playoffs on Monday.
We had a good first two games, beating both teams by wide margins. I didn't play a lot in the first game but went 3 for 3 in the 2nd with a pair of singles, a ground rule double, a walk and 6 or 7 RBI.
On Sunday our strong play continued as we easily beat both our opponents. I didn't have much power in the game but still slapped the ball enough to get on base just about every time. Being 4-0 we easily got into the Monday playoffs where we faced a tough Senegalese team in the first round. I did lousy at the plate but we still got by them (the score was 8-2, I think) and that moved us on to the championship game.
This team was made up of ex-pat workers in The Gambia and was easily the toughest team we faced all weekend. We took an early 4-2 lead but things fell apart in the fourth inning and we trailed 7-4. We got back a couple of runs in the 6th inning but it wasn't enough and we lost 7-6, finishing 2nd place in the tournament. That was disappointing but certainly exceeded any expectations we had heading into the weekend.
Overall it was a great weekend. Miri & Hannah were really excited each day to head out to the ball fields and spend time with friends there and we got to know some new people. I'm already looking forward to next year's games (although I'll need to find some ice packs before then).