Sports
Gimme 5: Bal Happy She Put in Effort to Play Ball
Oak Forest senior standout Sam Bal fought through second thoughts about playing high school softball and has become a Bengal champion.
Oak Forest senior second baseman Sam Bal readily admits she wasn’t the greatest softball player when she first started playing the game.
But she was 5 years old.
Now, she is a state champion and about to start her final playoff run with the Bengals.
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“I wasn’t good at all in the beginning,” Bal said. “Then, we went into travel ball and I started developing.”
Travel ball began for Bal in sixth grade. This is also when she would put in four hours of softball work every day. Bal and her little sister, Lauren, who is also on the Oak Forest team this year, would go out with their dad and work on hitting and fielding groundballs.
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There did come times when Sam thought all the hard work might not be worth it.
“I just kept thinking, ‘It’s going to get better, I’m going to go to high school. Things are going to get better, it’s just a bad patch right now,’ ” Bal said.
Bal is glad she stuck with it, especially considering she was the starting second baseman in 2009 when Oak Forest won a state title. She’s hoping her team can use that experience this season to its advantage.
“We know what it takes to get there, so we have to play to that level,” Bal said.
Next year, Bal is going to IIT in Chicago to study business and math. The school doesn't have a varsity softball team. But she'll continue to follow the Bengals and her sister, Lauren.
