Month: November 2018

Indoor Softball Skills Day

Following on from the successful softball skills day in September and the wonderful Dublin Indoor Softball Tournament in early November, we are delighted to confirm that the Irish National Women’s coaching team are joining up with Julie and the indoor softball organisers to host a softball skills morning followed by a game or two on Sunday December 2, 2018 at 12:30.

When: Sunday December 2, 2018

Time: 1230 – 2:30pm

Where: Firhouse Community College, Firhouse Road, Dublin 24

We look forward to you joining us on what should be a fun couple of hours.

Ireland women’s Fastpitch team jump 6 spots to 12th in Softball Europe rankings

Ireland move up six spots in European Rankings

Ireland have moved up to 12th in the Softball Europe 2018 rankings which is a just reward for their European Under 19 silver medal and Under 22 bronze medal in July.

Ranked 23rd in 2016, the young Irish squad had continued to deliver on the international stage in 2018 and shocked Europe by reaching the final of the U19s the hard way beating European powerhouses Netherlands, Germany, Russia and Czech Republic. Ireland carried this form into the U22 tournament when the mainly U19 team with the addition of a couple of more senior players eliminated hosts Slovakia and followed this up by beating Greece, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and number 3 in Europe Great Britain for a hard earned bronze medal.

Speaking on the 2018 achievements Head Coach Melanie Cunningham said ” I am delighted for the players, the programme and Ireland that our hard work and success are recognized in the European rankings. We are a programme still in its infancy which first competed in 2015 and to jump 11 places in such a short period is an amazing achievement. I would like to thank the Players, our coaches, the Players families and all those who have made sacrifices to make this possible.”

Coach Cunningham added “We are a still growing as a programme and 2019 will give us an opportunity to build on this success as we compete in the European Championships. Our target is a top 6 finish in order to qualify for the final Europe/Africa Olympic qualifier and keep our Olympic dream alive. We also have a Junior World Championships in August to look forward to as well as a number of other important international tournaments. Our challenge is finding sponsorship and funding to turn this real potential into reality as the Irish Women’s Fastpitch team continue receive zero funding.”

Media

For more details please contact

Colum Lavery

E: president@softball.ie

T: +353867708576

About European Softball Rankings

Details on how European Softball Rankings are calculated and previous year rankings can be found here: http://www.europeansoftball.org/ranking/

Ireland Drop One Spot in Softball Europe Slowpitch Rankings

Ireland drop one place to 4th in Europe in Slowpitch Softball

Ireland have lost third spot to the Czech Republic and dropped one spot to fourth in the European Slowpitch rankings issued on November 25, 2018 a reverse to what happened in 2017.

Ireland’s 7th place finish at the Men’s European Championships coupled with the Czech Republics 4th place finish sees Ireland trail Czech Republic by 250 points as we go into the 2019 European Co-ed Championships.

Ireland will head the the European Championships that it can reverse the situation once more as they push for a European medal and automatic qualification to the inaugural WBSC Co-ed Slowpitch World Cup in 2020.

AGM 2018 Decisions – Treasurer Required

Annual General Meeting 2018 Decisions

The 2018 Softball Ireland Annual General Meeting was held on November 17, 2018. Thank you to all the members who attended and took part in engaged and positive AGM.

Below is a summary of the decisions on the day, the full minutes will be circulated shortly.

  • A detailed update on the proposed merger with Baseball Ireland was provided to the membership in attendance
  • Accounts to year ended September 30, 2018 approved
  • Elections/Confirmation of Appointments as follows
    • Conor Sayles was elected as Secretary
    • Jonathan Spielberg was confirmed as Softball Leinster Rep.
    • Jay Slevin was confirmed as Softball Ulster Rep.
    • Melanie Cunningham was confirmed as Fastpitch Rep.
    • Erin Brown was confirmed as Independent Board member
  • 2019 Softball Ireland priorities were noted
  • Constitutional amendments were approved

Treasurer Required

Softball Ireland are seeking a volunteer to take on the position of Treasurer – if you are interested in the role or need to know more about it please email president@softball.ie 

DIST 2018 Tournament Report

Indoor Softball is back – Originals Win DIST 2018

Indoor Softball came back to Dublin after a two year break and has found a new home in the excellent DCU sports hall.

Impressively half the participating teams were from outside Dublin together with four teams, Camels, Wicklow Wolves, Galway Tribes and Galway Hookers, making their indoor softball debuts.

The tournament format saw the teams divided into two groups of 6 consisting of 5 round robin games with the top two in each group qualifying the semi finals.

The Originals win DIST 2018.

Story of the day …

Group Stages

Group 1

Group 1, Originals, BSC and Hippetys all started strong with commanding first wins but then Originals took control by first beating Hippetys and then in a close match defeating BSC 54-31. Meanwhile Galway Hookers and Suspects got their first win.

After Lunch Originals juggernaut kept rolling, winning two more games and securing the top spot. While in the last group game BSC and Hippetys met to decide second. BSC game out strong scoring 44 points in top of first inning and although Hippetys made a strong come back, BSC doubled down with another 41 score and second and a semi-final spot was theirs.

BSC at DIST 2018

Group 2

2Pak and DynaKegs started the morning strong by winning their games by 124 and 60 points respectively and sounding off a warning shot that was going to be heard for the rest of the day, the Galway Tribes beat ReneHomers 51-46. In the very next game Tribes continued the upsets beating a surprised 2Pak 75-60 and the Tribes were now serious contenders. In the third round games of Group 1 and now on the verge of an early knockout, 2Pak fought hard to get back into the competition and squeaked past DynaKegs 43-31. With the Tribes winning again, going into Lunch, Tribes topped the group undefeated, with 2Pak and DynaKegs tied in second.

In first game after lunch for group 2, DynaKegs gave Tribes their first defeat of the day and now we had a three-way tie for top spot. Going into the last group game 2Pak had the advantage with 303 runs for, Tribes 221 with and DynaKegs with 217 runs for. This meant 2Pak held a strong advantage but had the toughest last game against ReneHomers.  And so it proved with 2Pak failing to take command but eventually coming out top and they won 49-33 and took top spot.  Now with just 4 runs in the difference, both DynaKegs and Tribes blew away their competition but it was DynaKegs, who won by 16 more runs, that took the last semi final spot.

2Pak at DIST

Semi-Finals

In the Semi-finals, BSC once again started strong and dominated the first inning and despite an energetic comeback from 2Pak, BSC stayed on top and booked their place in the final. In the second semi-final DynaKegs batted well but there was no stopping Originals dominance, a 70-40 win for originals and we had our two finalists Originals v BSC.

Finals

So to our final, Originals v BSC, BSC won the toss and if it was an omen how the rest of the final would go, well the Originals weren’t listening. Originals batted first and had 10 points with no outs, and continued to rack up the points with both the Limerick Boys and Girls smashing the balls against floor, netting and rafters. After 6 minutes they had amassed an impressive 37 points. Belfast came right back at them and although playing solid, too many late outs, left them with a solid 17 points but trailing 20 going into second half. Again Originals just continued to pound the court while at bat and beat their first inning score, finishing with 42 points, 79 in total.  Belfast went into the bottom of the last inning knowing they had to find 63 runs from somewhere, rarely done against Originals.  And despite some waylaid throws hitting Barry in the back, Belfast’s first few at bats were fruitless, which seemed to knock the wind out of them and after a long day of indoor they just couldn’t muster the last bit of energy. Originals held them to 6 runs in the inning and won the final 79-23.

Big thanks to Umpires and Scorers, Grace Kearney, Ruth Brady, Gerard Guckian and Jordan Sylver and to all teams and players for contributing to an excellent day…

Final Standings of DIST 2018
1st Originals
2nd BSC
3rd 2Pak
4th DynaKegs
5th Tribes
6th Hippety’s
7th Rene “whatever” Homers
8th Suspects
9th Sliders
10th Hookers
11th Wolves
12th Camel

Originals win DIST 2018

Originals best Belfast Softball Club in 2018 DIST Final

After an exciting day of Indoor Softball in Dublin City University, Originals Softball team have won the relaunched Dublin Indoor Softball Tournament beating Belfast Softball Club 79-23.

The Originals win DIST 2018.

The Final Standings of DIST 2018
1st Originals
2nd BSC
3rd 2Pak
4th DynaKegs
5th Tribes
6th Hippety’s
7th Rene “whatever” Homers
8th Suspects
9th Sliders
10th Hookers
11th Wolves
12th Camels

Thank you to Julie and Steve for getting the tournament up and going again together with the scorers and umpires for making the day run smoothly.

Report to follow shortly

Indoor Softball is Back – DIST 2018

After too long of a break, the Dublin Indoor Softball Tournament is back under the stewardship of its founder Julie Trundle

It was to our great delight that Julie Trundle approached Softball Ireland and volunteered to resurrect a tournament that had unfortunately dropped off the softball calendar in Ireland.

The tournament, to be held on November 11, 2018, has also found a new home in the DCU Sports Complex on Dublin north side and promises to be the best venue yet for what is always a fun day ran by an energetic Julie.

Softball Ireland are also very pleased that Julie Trundle accepted our offer and we are delighted to announce the appointment of Julie Trundle as the Softball Ireland Director of Indoor Softball.

Speaking about the appointment, Softball Ireland President Colum Lavery said “I was delighted when Julie volunteered to take on the role once more. Julie re-introduced indoor softball into Ireland a number of years ago and some of the best attended tournaments were when Julie ran them. Julie will bring her unique infectious positive energy to the tournaments and we look forward to them once more becoming “not to miss events” on the softball calendar.”

DIST 2018 Tournament Details

Tournament Schedule and Indoor Softball Rules may be found by clicking here

Details of how to get to DCU can be found by clicking here

Updates on the tournament or teams seeking players can be found through following the Dublin Indoor Softball Tournament Facebook Page

Softball Ireland Annual General Meeting

Download AGM Pack

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 

OF 

SOFTBALL IRELAND 

The Annual General Meeting of Softball Ireland will be held at ALSAA Sports Centre, Old Airport Rd, Toberbunny, Co. Dublin, K67 YV06 on Saturday November 17, 2018 at 12.00pm (1200) for the purposes of transacting the following business in accordance with the Softball Ireland Constitution: – 

1.    Adoption of Standing Orders 

2.    Minutes of the 2017 AGM and Matters Arising 

3.    Presidents Report 

4.    Financial

a.    Accounts and Balance Sheet of SI for year ended September 30, 2018 

b.    Appoint Auditors for 2019 

c.     Note the 2019 Draft Softball Ireland Budget 

5.    Election of Softball Ireland Board

a.    Consider Nominations for Secretary (2-year term)

b.    Consider Nominations for Treasurer (2-year term)

c.     Ratify Appointment of Softball Leinster Representative

d.    Ratify Appointment of Softball Ulster Representative

e.    Ratify Appointment of Fastpitch Division Representative

f.      Ratify Independent Board Member

6.    Consider Proposed Amendments to the Constitution

7.    Any Other Business 

By order of Softball Ireland 

Note:  

      i.        The Quorum for a General Meeting shall be 50% of the fully paid up Teams in accordance with Article 7 entitled to attend and vote at a General Meeting.

     ii.        Each fully paid up Player in Good Standing of SI may attend and speak, subject to the standing orders, at the General Meeting  

    iii.            Unless designated as Representative of a Team at a meeting, the Player shall not have a vote. 

Nominations: Nominations for the position of Treasurer of Softball Ireland must be submitted noting the proposer and seconder by 1700 on November 15, 2018 to president@softball.ie