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
