Category: Co-ed Slowpitch National Team

Slowpitch National Team Squad Announced

Sixty-one players registered to try out for the National Slowpitch Squads in February, and 58 attended over the three trial sessions. It was great to see both new and familiar faces representing the breadth of softball on the island. The coaching team was impressed with the level of commitment and the effort people made to travel to the sessions. They were also encouraged by the passion and potential demonstrated by the group of players.

While assessing the participants, the coaching team’s selection criteria considered technical ability, athleticism and all-round attitude. The longevity of the national squad program was also a factor, so the squad’s short-term and long-term goals were foremost in the selection process. 

We are pleased to announce the following extended squads for COED and Men’s. We want to congratulate those selected and look forward to working with them over the coming months.

Below is the list of 28 players selected for the extended COED squad. A panel of players will be selected from this squad to travel and represent Ireland at the European Championship in the Czech Republic in July.  

NameTeamNameTeam
Christopher BarrBelfast CubsMike LucasAverage Joes
Brian ConnollyDoddder DynamoesKen McCarthyDodder Dynamoes
Serena CostelloeAverage JoesAbigail McConnellGalway Tribes
Cathal CreavenGalway TribesNorma McIntyreBatPak
Wayne CullenAverage JoesLuke MolloyHippetys
Darryl DolanAverage JoesMerilin NeilandAverage Joes
Katie DoyleHippetysPearse NewmanHippetys
Brian HehirLNZ LondonJennifer Ó BuachallaBatPak
Ashleigh HowardBearcats CastleknockGary O’SheaDodder Dynamoes
Eric KellyMunsterSalvador Rizo LopezBatPak
Hazel KilduffBatPakMary Carroll SmithGalway Tribes
Niall LaveryDodder DynamoesMegan SutcliffeDublin Bay Packers
Simon LewisBearcats CastleknockJulie TrundleDublin Bay Packers
Eimear LinehanDodder DynamoesPhil WallaceBSC Brawlers

Below is the list of players selected for an extended 24-man squad for the Men’s. Although the official 2024 Men’s tournament has been cancelled, the coaching team will provide the opportunity for this squad to train together over the summer. 

NameTeamNameTeam
Christopher BarrBelfast CubsSimon LewisBearcats Castleknock
James CallowBSC BrawlerMike LucasAverage Joes
Lorcan CarbinGalway TribesAidan LynskeyAverage Joes
Jason CheungAshbourne AntlersPaddy MeehanBatPak
Brian ConnollyDodder DynamoesLuke MolloyHippetys
Cathal CreavenGalway TribesKevin MullanNewtownabbey Phoenix
Wayne CullenAverage JoesPearse NewmanHippetys
Darryl DolanAverage JoesEoin O’ConnorOaktown Brew Crew, Oakland CA
JP DolanSuffolk County Police TeamGary O’SheaDodder Dynamoes
Brian HehirLNZ LondonSalvador Rizo LopezBatPak
Eric KellyMunsterShane SheridanAverage Joes
Niall LaveryDodder DynamoesPhil WallaceBSC Brawlers

Peter Mullen
Head Coach

Senan Dormer Appointed Slowpitch National Teams Head Coach

Softball Ireland are delighted to confirm the reappointment of Senan Dormer as the Irish Coed Slowpitch and Men’s Slowpitch National Teams Head Coach.

Senan was originally appointed to the role of Coed Slowpitch National Team Coach in 2015 leading national teams to 2 bronze medals during his tenure to date. Senan has been appointed until December 2023 which will include three European Championships and potentially the inaugural Coed Slowpitch World Cup.

I addition to Senan’s appointment, the Softball Ireland Board also confirmed the appointment of Karen Brady, Peter Mullen and Eoin Coonan as programme assistant coaches.

Senan Dormer said “I am delighted to be reappointed as head coach of the Irish Slowpitch National teams. I look forward to the challenges ahead. I have a coaching team of Karen Brady, Peter Mullen and Eoin Coonan. I look forward to bringing more silverware to Ireland and trying to qualify for the inaugural Slowpitch Softball World Cup.”

Speaking on Senan’s appointment, Softball Ireland President Colum Lavery said “Together with the Board we are delighted to reappoint Senan to the role. Senan has a proved track record at European Championships since 2015 and we are confident he will take the programme forward”. Lavery added “We are entering a challenging period post COVID for national teams and Senan and his coaching team have vast international slowpitch softball experience on and off the field and we are confident that they will bring through the next generation of players at the international level.”

Subject to the approval of the Softball Ireland medical committee, the Coed Slowpitch National Team is scheduled to play in the World Series in London during September 2021.

Softball Ireland have confirmed that the position of Director of Slowpitch National Team remains vacant and will be readvertised shortly.

Slowpitch National Team – Expression of Interest

Expressions of interest are sought from Irish eligible players who wish to be considered for the Slowpitch National Teams in 2020

Ireland will participate in two tournaments in the summer of 2020. The Men’s Slowptich European Championships will be held in the summer of 2020, most likely June, on the continent. The exact dates will be confirmed at the ESF Congress on February 8, 2020. The annual BSF World Series in London will be held at a new venue in 2020. The date for the tournament has yet to be confirmed but will most likely be the end of August/September time frame – Ireland will enter a Coed Slowpitch National Team in this tournament.  Players who are interested in representing Ireland at either of the 2020 tournaments are invited to complete the below survey which will be provided to the newly appointed Director of Slowpitch National Teams and Coaches. Please click the below link to register your interst to prepresent Ireland in 2020, players should complete the form by February 21, 2020 at which point trial dates will be announced. 

Register Expression of Interest to Represent National Slowpitch National Teams

Director of Slowpitch National Teams Position

Softball Ireland are seeking applications for the voluntary position of Director of Slowpitch National Teams. 

The newly created position will report directly to the Softball Ireland board and provide oversight for all Slowpitch National Teams operations including, but not limited to, programme finances, personnel (hiring, evaluations) and programme operations, team logistics (scheduling, programme needs). The Director will oversee, coordinate and evaluate all coaches and players and is responsible for overall team operations, while reporting directly to the Board of Softball Ireland. The Head Coaches of the programme will report directly to the Director of Slowpitch National Teams.

The job specification for the position is available below and candidates are requested to submit a cover letter and curriculum vitate to the Softball Ireland Secretary, Conor Sayles (secretary@softball.ie) by 5pm on Friday February 14, 2020.

Click Here To Download Director of Slowpitch National Teams Job Specification.

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.

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!

The Co-Ed Slow Pitch National Team representing Ireland.

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.

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

Major League Baseball Logo

Irish Coach to attend MLB Coach Development Programme

Jonathan Spielberg to attend MLB Coaches Camp

Softball Ireland are delighted to announce that Jonathan Spielberg will attend the MLB Coaches Development Programme in London on May 25/26, 2019.

The MLB camp is part of the legacy programme being ran by MLB in advance of the RedSox v Yankees London Series in June.

Jonathan is currently an assistant coach on the Slowpitch National Co-ed team that will travel to Hungary for the European Championships in July and was Head Coach of the Mens National Team in 2018.

Speaking on the invitation, Softball Ireland President Colum Lavery said, ” We would like to thank BSUK for the invitation to send coaches to the programme, we are delighted that Jonathan is attending and are delighted we can fund it through a development grant.”

Co-Ed European Championship Squad Announced

2019 Co-Ed Slowpitch European Championship Squad Announced

Dublin May 8, 2019

Co-ed Slowpitch National Team manager Senan Dormer has announced the final squad for the 2019 European Championships which will take place in Budapest, Hungary from the 15 July to 20 July 2019.

                              Women

                                  Men

Ruth Casey

Kegs

Barry Casey

Kegs

Ruth Concannon

Ori-ginals

Brian Franks*

Renegade Reapers

Caryn Elmes

Batpak

Frank Geoghan

Dodder

Andrea Kavanagh

TNT

Brian Hehir

Ori-ginals

Emma Kilbride

Batpak

Eric Kelly

Ori-ginals

Norma McIntyre

Batpak

Simon Lewis

TNT

Julie Trundle

Dublin Bay Packers

Gary O’Shea

Batpak/Thunderbolts

   

Ben Reilly

Batpak

   

Sal Rizo

Batpak

* Denotes New Cap

 Management Team

Senan Dormer – Head coach

Jonathan Spielberg – Assistant Coach

Declan Burke – Assistant Coach

Paddy Donnelly – Assistant Coach

Karen Brady – Strength & Conditioning Coach

Home plate with a bat, balls and helmet.

Coed Slowpitch Trial Number 2 in the Books

Preparations for 2019 European Championships Ramp up

The coed slowpitch national team continued their preparations for the 2019 European Championships with the hosting of the second of three planned trials to identify the final roster.

On a wet, cold, sleety and sunny day in Castleknock College 16 players attended the second trial and were assessed in the key areas of fitness, defense and offence. Ireland team manger Senan Dormer will select and extended squad prior to selecting the final squads to compete at the European Championships in July 2019 and the BSF World Series in September 2019.

Dates of the third trial will be announced in the coming days and players are encouraged to attend.  

European Championships – Budapest Hungary – July 15 – 20, 2019

BSF World Series – London – September 7-8, 2019