The format for the the Women’s Softball World Cup (Group A) which will be hosted in Balbriggan, Co. Dublin between July 11 – July 15, 2023 has been confirmed.

Under the new two-stage format, the World Cups are played over two consecutive years, with the Group Stage the first year with the Finals following the year after.

Two-Stage Softball World Cups: Group Stage Competition Format

• 18 teams feature in the Group Stage spread across three groups
• The top two teams from each group in the Group Stage advance to the Finals
• Each group in the Group Stage will start with a single round robin.
• The best four teams from the round robin will advance to play-offs where the top two sides play each other with a ticket to the Finals at stake.
• The loser of the first play-off game will then play against the third v fourth winner for the second spot in the Finals

Full article on the format is available here

About – The Women’s Softball World Cup is being hosted at a 2,500 seater temporary stadium in Balbriggan Co. Dublin between July 11 – July 15, 2023. The tournament is being jointly hosted by Softball Ireland (Fastpitch) and Fingal County Council – for all media/sponsoship queries please email: softballwcireland@gmail.com

The 2023 Softball Tournaments Calendar has been updated on the Softball Ireland website. As tournaments and events are approved by Softball Ireland the calendar will be updated regularly. If you wish to add an event to the calendar please let us know! The calendar may be found using the link below or under the events menu bar. Click on the event for more details as they become available.

Softball Ireland Events Calendar

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF

SOFTBALL IRELAND

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that an Annual General Meeting of Softball Ireland will be held at ALSAA Sports Centre, Old Airport Rd, Toberbunny, Co. Dublin, K67 YV06 on Sunday January 29, 2023 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 2021 AGM and Matters Arising

3. Presidents Report

3a. Softball World Cup Update

3b. Baseball Softball Ireland Update

4. Financial

4a. Accounts and Balance Sheet of SI for year ended September 30, 2022

4b. Confirmation of Audit & Compliance Committee Membership

4c. Note the 2023 Draft Softball Ireland Budget

5. Election of Softball Ireland Board

5a. Consider Nominations for Secretary (3-year term)

5b. Consider Nominations for Treasurer (3-year term)

5c. Ratify Appointment of Softball Leinster Representative

5d. Ratify Appointment of Softball Ulster Representative

5e. Ratify Appointment of Softball Connaught / Muster

5f. Ratify Appointment of Fastpitch Discipline Representative

6. Any Other Business

Dated this January 8, 2023

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.

iv. Proxy votes will be accepted, by the Secretary General up to 24 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting, from teams based in regions other than that hosting the AGM. Such teams will count towards the quorum of the meeting. A proxy vote may only be cast by a designated Representative of a team.

Nominations: Nominations for the position of Treasurer of Softball Ireland must be submitted noting the proposer and seconder by 1700 on January 22, 2023 to secretary@softball.ie

Locker a new app for sports fans is running a ‘Club Hero’ competition providing clubs with an opportunity to win €5,000.

The Competition which is running until the end of the month and gives clubs at all level of sport a chance to win €5,000 for their club by simply downloading Locker and registering their club.

Locker is a free app that helps centralise premium sports content and put the power in the hands of fans to personalise their world of sport

The Locker app is a must have sports fans
– Centralising content for fans to curate their world of sport
– Club Hero can win you 5k for your club
– App is free to play; download and register your club name to enter
– More entries from members and friends increase your chances to win

Competition ends September 30th

Link to all info can be found here https://getlocker.com/club-hero/

Please use the link below to register your team for the 2022 IOST. This years IOST takes place on the 13th & 14th of August at MTU Cork.

Accommodation is available at €70 per room per night quoting discount code “Softball Ireland” for this rate. Please contact Melbourne Point Student Accommodation on 021 6035500 between 8am-3.30pm. Players and teams are advised to book their accommodation as soon as possible due to extremely high demand in the sector at the moment.

https://forms.gle/G13vs9PDY9aqCQMr7

Details on social events around the IOST will be shared at a later date.

Ireland have lost the opening game of the Men’s Euros 14-10 to the Netherlands.
With only 1 run in it a the end of 5, a 5 run 6th inning for Netherlands left too much for Ireland to chase in the end.
Ireland have a quick turnaround as we play hosts Italy in the opening ceremony game at 6pm Irish Time this evening.

The second edition of the Men’s Slowpitch European Championship starts on June 14, 2022 and the Irish team travels with the confidence to challenge for a medal by the time the tournament concludes in Colorno, Italy on Saturday June 18th.

In order to win a medal, Ireland face tough oppositions with Great Britain, the defending Champions, starting as tournament favourites with strong showings expected from Italy the hosts and Germany. Ireland start the tournament as six seeds with an opening game versus the Netherlands at noon on Tuesday 14th and then as part of the opening ceremony game v hosts Italy at 6pm.

Irleand’s progress at the tournament can be followed on all our social media channels with live play by play available at Play by Play

The WBSC has confirmed that the inaugural the Slow Pitch Softball World Cup for 2023, following a proposal from a Slow Pitch Working Group of which Softball Ireland President Colum Lavery was a member.

The WBSC have confirmed the inaugral World Cup will be a 12-team tournament, with qualifiers coming from Africa (1), Americas (3), Asia (3), Europe (3), Oceania (1) and 1 Wild Card.

The 2022 Slow Pitch European Championships in July will act as Europes qualification tournament for the World Cup and a medal will be needed to qualify.

The Creation of a World Cup for Slow Pitch is a long time coming and a great step forward for the discipline. The World Cup will finally give an opportunity for Slow Pitch players globally to showcase their talent. We were delighted to support our European colleagues on the Working Group in recommending the Slow Pitch World Cup to the Executive Board.

Colum Lavery, President Softball Ireland

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Executive Committee have today awarded the co-hosting rights of the flagship WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup to Ireland, Italy and Spain. Ireland together with Italy and Spain will host a group of the World Cup in 2023, with Italy hosting the Finals in 2024.

Other than the Olympic games, the Women’s Softball World Cup is the most prestigious event in World Softball and will be broadcast globally in 2023. Working closely with its bid partners, the World Cup Organising Committee, Fastpitch Ireland and Fingal presented a successful bid to co-host the tournament in Ireland.

The World Cup Group will be held in Fingal on a purpose built venue for the tournament.

“We’re delighted to bring the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup back to Europe, with Ireland, Italy and Spain co-hosting the biggest international softball event in the globe.” “The Women’s Softball World Cup represents the first WBSC World Cup to be played under the innovative Two-Stage format, that gives more flexibility and opportunities for cities, regions and countries to host and participate in WBSC events.”

WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari

The hosting of the tournament will be the biggest softball event ever hosted in Ireland, and it is envisoned that it will be the catalyst that puts all disciplines of our sport in the eyes of the nation and begins the re-growth of the sport.

The awarding of the World Cup to Ireland is a testament to the standing of Team Ireland and the Irish Federation in the WBSC. A lot of hard work has been put into developing the bid with Fingal and we are very gateful for Fingals support and vision to join us in the bid.” “This tournament presents a once in a life time opportunity for our Players to play in a World Cup on their home field and for us to create a strong positive legacy for the game in Ireland, promote all disciplines of the game in Ireland and supercharge the growth of women’s and youth softball.”

Melanie Cunningham, Director of Fastpitch Ireland

The exact dates of the WBSC Women’s Softball World Cup Group Stage and Finals are still to be confirmed and will be announced shortly.

For further media information – please contact Colum Lavery – +353 86 770 8576

Irish Slowpitch National Team Manager Senan Dormer has announced the Irish roster for the upcoming Men’s Slowpitch Championships to be played in Colorno, Italy from June 14 – July 18, 2022.

The European Championships will be the second edition of the Men’s event. Ireland previously participated in the inaugral event in 2018

The Ireland squad for the tournament see’s 4 uncapped players included in the roster which is an exciting mix of youth and experience.

As with all Ireland squads, these are self funded and we would ask our members to support the fund raising activities of the players.

As part of this season’s strategy, Softball Ireland (SI) are exploring ways to improve the visibility of the sport both here in Ireland and abroad through new streaming services that can bring wider access to games at all events and leagues across Ireland in 2022.

Included as part of our wider growth strategy, SI believes that a strong, quality, and consistent streaming solution is imperative for the sport.  Streaming has become standard for all levels of sport in Ireland and abroad, and with this growth, a number of innovative solutions & tools are more readily available that can be utilised to make it easier to access, but also for teams to fundraise and monetise effectively.

As part of this process, we’ll be testing with live streaming with a handful of teams across the SI leagues.  While this year will be a pilot program for a few teams who have shown interest in testing, the platform and service is available to all teams at all levels if interested.

The objective of the pilot program is to test the technology and see if these types of OTT providers can be a solution long term that all teams, events, and tournaments for Softball can utilise for both awareness but also fundraising.  

Through numerous conversations with streaming providers, SI has identified Joymo as a viable solution to provide the early tools and technology that are easy to use, as well as tick the box on core features and functionality that are important for a successful long term streaming strategy.  

Joymo works with other federation members in Ireland as well as in UK and around Europe for a range of different sports, and are eager to work with Softball Ireland and the teams as we trial and test their services throughout 2022.

You can find out more about Joymo via their website here.

Participating teams have the ability to host all games live that can be accessible on desktop or via their app.  Tools include the ability to have a scoreboard for matches and commentary.  Through the platform, all games will be accessible for participating members via the archive, and includes both subscriptions as well as advertising that gives easy solutions for clubs to offset costs and further raise sponsorship.  

We’ll be looking to host training sessions and further communication around the wider pilot program strategy for the 2022 season in the coming weeks as well.

We look forward to rolling out more communication around this in the coming weeks.  Any questions can be directed to Matt at streaming@softball.ie.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has now published updated 2022-2025 Official Rulebooks for slowpitch and fastpitch softball.  

These new Rulebooks, and summaries of major changes made to the previous Rulebooks, can be downloaded from the links below:

2022-2025 Slowpitch Rulebook
https://static.wbsc.org/assets/cms/documents/5e85a934-d622-2bd8-62f9-854264607589.pdf

Summary of changes to the Slowpitch Rulebook
https://static.wbsc.org/assets/cms/documents/c539c225-15d6-57f6-50e9-a38b65aa3978.pdf

2022-2025 Fastpitch Rulebook
https://static.wbsc.org/assets/cms/documents/b5480455-60e2-bfc3-1e2e-3566c2765cc5.pdf

Summary of changes to the Fastpitch Rulebook
https://static.wbsc.org/assets/cms/documents/a00ab077-6716-bc07-06a2-c193e9f2fac1.pdf