Month: July 2019

by Colum Lavery

Ireland win Bronze on Final Day

Ireland have won a deserved bronze medal at the 2019 Co-ed Slowptich Championships.

Following on from the disappointment of missing out on the final after defeats to the Netherlands and Czech Republic on Friday, Ireland got a chance for revenge as they took on the Czech Republic in the bronze medal final.

Ireland took an early lead in the game and unlike Friday, never let the Czech Republic back into the game with great defence and more importantly kept the score-board ticking over every inning. Truth be told, Ireland always looked like they could match Czech Republic on the scoreboard and bar a couple of hairy moments controlled the game, winning every inning on the scoreboard bar one. Ireland eventually won out 17-13 to bring home a bronze medal.

Speaking on the medal, Softball Ireland President Colum Lavery said “On behalf of all the members of Softball Ireland, I wish to congratulate Senan, the Players and Coaching staff on thier bronze medal. We all followed the ups and downs as the week went along and we are immensely proud of the way the team regrouped on Friday night to come out on Saturday to give such a dominant display. We are very proud of how they performed and we could not ask for any better representatives of our Country”

Softball Ireland would like to congratulate Steve Patterson, Kegs player and former Irish Fastpitch team national assistant coach, on his gold medal as head coach of Great Britain!

Next up for Ireland is the World Series in September.

IRELAND............. 164 123 0 - 17
CZECH REPUBLIC...... 142 033 0 - 13
 
The Co-Ed Slow Pitch National Team representing Ireland.
by Colum Lavery

Ireland look to bring home bronze medal

Ireland to play for bronze medal on final day

Ireland will play for a bronze medal on the final day of the European Championships in Budapest  Hungary. 

Coming into the day, Ireland knew two wins would guarantee them a place in the final, whilst one win and a result going the right way would have also put them into the final. 

Ireland played the sleeping giant of the tournament, the Netherlands in the morning, the Netherlands record of 1 & 4 in the medal round doesn’t tell the true story of the quality in the team and Ireland went toe to toe with this European heavy weight. Once more the game was time limited to 6 innings, and after a back and forth game, a 5 run fifth inning just pushed the Netherlands noses in front enough to give them a 10-9 win. The box score for the game is below.

NETHERLANDS......... 300 250  - 10
IRELAND............. 303 201  -  9

The afternoon game saw Ireland play the Czech Republic. A win for Ireland coupled with a loss by Germany to Great Britain and Ireland were in the final. Ireland jumped into an early lead in the game leading into the fourth inning, however the Czechs put the pressure on by keeping the score board ticking over in most innings. Ireland would have felt comfortable chasing the Czech Republics 3 run lead going into the seventh, however, the Czech bats came alive and scored 8 runs in top of the seventh to leave Ireland chasing 10 runs. Ireland started eating away into the lead but unfortunately ran out of outs.

CZECH REPUBLIC...... 011 3408  - 19
IRELAND............. 050 4003  - 12

Following the two defeats, Ireland finish the round robin stage of the medal round on a 2 & 3 record meaning Ireland will play for the Bronze Medal tomorrow afternoon (2pm Irish Time) most likely against the Czech Republic.

The team will no doubt be disappointed not to reach the final, but all of us here in Ireland are very proud of how the team has competed and represented Ireland over the last number of days.

With a bronze medal to be played for we look forward to Ireland producing one more performance to take the medal home tomorrow!

The Bronze Medal game will take place at 1400 Irish Time tomorrow.

Eire Abu!

by Colum Lavery

Softball Ireland & Baseball Ireland Announce Merger

Baseball Softball Ireland Created

Softball Ireland are delighted to confirm that the Board of Softball Ireland have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding with Baseball Ireland as the two federations merge into one national governing body. This important merger is expected to be finalised before the end of the year.

Once the formalities of recognition are completed with our respective international governing bodies, the new Federation, “Baseball Softball Ireland”, will be in a position to apply for recognition by Sport Ireland.

On a practical day to day basis, Softball Ireland and Baseball Ireland will continue to run our respective leagues and tournaments, however the merged body will work to identify strategic areas to develop the sport, particularly in the development of youth programmes.

Should you have any questions on the above, please do not hesitate to contact Colum Lavery at president@softball.ie 

Softball Ireland would like to thank the positive contribution of both the Softball Ireland and Baseball Ireland boards in finalising the merger.

We look forward to working with our colleagues from Baseball Ireland to continue to grow our respective games in Ireland.

The Co-Ed Slow Pitch National Team representing Ireland.
by Colum Lavery

Ireland Progress to Medal Round with perfect record

Ireland Top Group B Unbeaten

Day 2 Dominated

Updated: 19:45 July 17, 2019

Ireland started Day 2 of the European Championships unbeaten and top of the table and that is how the finished after setting their stall out and dominating both Bulgaria and Italy.

In the first game of the day, after a slow start against Bulgaria, Ireland took control half way through and never looked back finishing strong by scoring 12 runs in the bottom of 6 to beat a good Bulgaria team 20-4 (runs ahead rule).

Ireland then faced Italy in the afternoon game. Ireland dominated the game from start to finish and saw off Italy 20-12 to finish top of Group B with four wins as the first round of the tournament comes to a close. This was the first win of any Irish national softball team over European powerhouse Italy.

Ireland finish the first round unbeaten and above defending champions Germany.

 

Moving Forward

Ireland now progress to the next round of the tournament and as B1, Ireland will play Great Britain, the winner of Group A tomorrow at 17:45 Irish Time. The benefit of going unbeaten through the first round is that Ireland bring forward a 2 win and 0 loss record by virtue of beating Germany and Belgium as we take on the top 3 teams from Group A.

At the end of the next round robin phase, the final will be contested by the top two teams and bronze by the teams ranked 3 and 4.

A phenomenal start to the tournament and Ireland now carry some real momentum into the medal round.

Softball Ireland hope to stream tomorrow’s evening’s game on our Facebook page and all the results and schedules may be found by clicking here.

The schedule for the next phase of games is outlined below – Ireland are B1 in Group C.

Home plate with a bat, balls and helmet.
by Colum Lavery

Co-ed Slowpitch Euro 2019 Preview

Months of hard-work is now turning into reality. In a couple of days Ireland’s competitive campaign will begin at the Coed Slowpitch European Championships 2019. There have been knocks, fractures, good days and bad days but nothing can break the spirit or determination of this team. There is a belief within this team. Ireland is in a round robin group with Germany, Bulgaria, Italy & Belgium. Germany are the recent champions having won gold in 2017. In 2017, Ireland lost by 1 run in the first match vs Germany, beat them by 5 in their second meeting only for Germany to take the final game by 8 runs. It shows how close to the mark Ireland was. Bulgaria would have been the underdogs in 2017 however, took some scalps along the way. This year, they will be more experienced than a lot of the new teams entering. Belgium and Italy are longtime FastPitch competitors but first time in the SlowPitch competition. However, they both play in the Super-Cup.

So what is the goal for this Irish team?‘Goal for the team is to play cohesively as a unit in defence and offence towards our goal of gold. Players and coaches have put in a lot of hard work to get to this point and we look forward to it paying off. Ireland Abu.’ Senan Dormer, Head Coach. The team is not short of inspiration as Team Captain, Salvador Rizo has embraced his role with his well known passion and flair. ‘I believe that we have an strong team to win the tournament and the hard work should be rewarded. We should be strong mentally as well as physical.  We will enjoy every game playing at our best, Éire Abú!’ Dedication is not in short supply in this team either…Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Hehir who got married in Italy and will travel straight to Hungry for their honeymoon on the diamond!  Off the field there will be laughs and the ever so democratic, ‘Kangaroo Court’, we will look forward to the warm-ups where we will compete and bond when doing team tasks. But when the team lines out and Amhrán na bhFiann starts to play, our eyes will fill with tears and our hearts with passion. We will be a team who plays hard, plays for each other and plays for Ireland.  We have a job to do. Thank you to our club mates and the wider softball community for their support and well wishes. Make sure to follow the Softball Ireland Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and website for updates on the team performance.  You can follow play by play action for the tournament by clicking here Norma McIntyre

An infield softball.
by Colum Lavery

IOST 2019 Update

Hi softball legends! 

Julie Trundle and I have been working hard on some fun ideas for the social side of this year’s IOST! 

We have some exciting plans that we’d like to share with you below:

On Friday night we will be holding a fun quiz night with games. This will start at 9pm in the Sports Bar and we guarantee you’ll meet people that you never have before! We’ll have games like cornhole, beer pong, giant Jenga and lots more! 

Throughout Saturday we will have some fun photo frames circulating so teams can take some excellent pics to share on social media! 

Saturday night is party time at the Stables! As it’s the 30th anniversary of IOST, we are going to party like it’s 1989! We would love you to dress up (don’t panic though – this is optional) and there will be prizes for the best dressed team, so get those costumes ready! We’ll have glow sticks and 80s tunes (from a brand new DJ) and even a beer pong tournament! There will also be a BBQ at the stables starting at  approx 8pm. This will help to keep everyone together! We’ll confirm timings on this closer to the time, but please let your teams know that we’ll be seeing them on Saturday to sell tickets for €10! 

Just one thing to be aware of for Saturday night – the Stables now have a policy of no high heels and no open toed shoes – this is to avoid broken toes after a few sociables have been enjoyed! Please make sure your team know this in advance so they can pack the correct footwear! 

All weekend, we will be awarding some special IOST survival kits to some lucky people – we’ll keep the contents a surprise for now!! 

And the best news? On Sunday we have arranged an ice cream truck to provide free 99s for everyone – yummy! We have requested lovely weather, so this will be very welcome! 

See you in Limerick! 

Elaine B and Julie T

Click here for details on accommodation booking