Category: National Teams

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

by Colum Lavery

Ireland v USA – 12 Days To Go

Ireland v USA – 12 Days To Go

Its just 12 Days to Ireland take on World Number 1 USA in Donnybrook Stadium in what should be a wonderful night to showcase our sport to the masses.

Come out and support the girls in green on the night or try Softball in our fan village!

Entry is Free!

#WeBleedGreen

Thank you to Eithne Walsh for the wonderful hype video

https://youtu.be/l1yTukBTSRc

by Colum Lavery

Ireland to Host USA in inaugural Atlantic Challenge Cup

Ireland to Host USA in inaugural Atlantic Challenge Cup

Softball Ireland are delighted to announce that the Irish Women’s National Team will host the World Number 1 USA Jr Women’s National Team in Dublin on June 24, 2019 at 7.00pm for the inaugural Atlantic Challenge Cup.

Ireland will play World Number 1 USA as part of final leg of their short European tour having played France and Japan in Paris prior to arriving in Dublin.

For Ireland, ranked 12th in Europe and 22nd in the World, the game forms an important part of Irelands preparations for the European Championships and Olympic Qualification tournament which will held in the Czech Republic and Poland from June 30 – July 6, 2019.

Speaking on the opportunity to play USA in Dublin, Head Coach Melanie Cunningham (Director of Fastpitch) said “We are excited for this opportunity. Playing such a strong opponent will be sure to focus the team prior to travelling to the European Championships. Like the hockey team in 2018, this summer is softballs chance to showcase what a high performance women’s programme can accomplish.”

Softball Ireland President added “We would like to thank USA Softball for agreeing to extend their tour to include Ireland. There is a special relationship between both our countries and in particular between our two Softball boards. This is a great opportunity for us to showcase Softball to the wider community in Ireland and we hope to see a lot of fans on the night wearing green and supporting the team.

Team Ireland will be hoping to replicate the success of 2018 during which the Under 19 Women’s Team won silver and Under 22 Women’s Team one bronze at their respective European Championships.

The Ireland v USA game will be streamed live globally and will be available in the USA on usasoftball.com.

Sponsorship and advertising opportunities will be available for interested partners.

Media Queries

Please contact  – Colum Lavery

E: president@softball.ie

T: +353867708576

https://youtu.be/JQPTyRkGM94

Major League Baseball Logo
by Colum Lavery

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.”

by Colum Lavery

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.
by Colum Lavery

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

Julie Trundle representing Ireland.
by Colum Lavery

IWD: Focus on Julie Trundle

Softball Ireland has a strong commitment to gender balance on its board with 50% or greater of the board being female since 2015.

This positive in governance extends further than just the Softball Ireland board to our Regional Associations also. Currently Fastpitch Ireland and Softball Ulster are led by female chairs with both following in the footsteps of Julie Trundle who was a forming member and long time driving force as Chair of Softball Leinster. In addition to chairing and driving the expansion of Softball in Leinster, Julie has been responsible for the re-introduction of Indoor Softball (twice) onto the Irish Softball calendar. 

Julie has not only driven change at the board level, Julie has been a member of the Softball Ireland Coed Slowpitch National team since 2004 and has traveled to many tournament around the world on club teams and everybody will agree that Julie has been a wonderful ambassador for our sport in Ireland, the UK and Beyond.

On this International Womens Day we thank Julie for her continued commitment to our sport!

by Colum Lavery

IWD: Two Irish Players to attend MLB Cadet Camp



To coincide with the Boston Red Sox v New York Yankees series to be played in London in June 2019, Major League Baseball (MLB) are running a Cadet Camp targeted at high level young male and female athletes. The athletes to partake in the camp have been selected by BaseballSoftballUK and MLB.

The Camp will be an action-packed programme of specially designed daytime coaching, drills and game time, followed by evening talks, delivered by MLB and their expert coaches, covering both baseball and fastpitch softball.

Softball Ireland are delighted to announce that through our continued partnership with BaseballSoftballUK and in particular BSF Fastpitch, Fastpitch Ireland have accepted the invitation to nominate Irish Junior Internationals Caitlyne De Lange and Maeve Og O’Leary to attend the MLB Cadet Camp at the end of the May.

This is a unique opportunity for the two talented Players to spend a week practicing in such a high performance environment.

Softball Ireland & Fastpitch Ireland would like to express our gratitude to BaseballSoftballUK for providing an opportunity to include some of our athletes in this camp.

by Colum Lavery

WNT Celebrates International Womens Day

Since Team 1 participated at the 2015 European Championships in Rosmalen, the Ireland WNT programme has continued to grow with 2018 being the most successful to date winning 2 European Championship medals.

Since the faithful Saturday morning in 2014 when the Director of Fastpitch, Melanie Cunningham, launched the discipline in Ireland the stated aim at that time was to create a profile for the sport at an national level and international level in order to create a catalyst for grass roots development in Ireland. Speaking at the Softball Ireland Annual General Meeting in November 2018, the development pathway of “top down – bottom up” was outlined to the membership with 2019 seeing the launch of a national Fastpitch league together with schools initiatives.

2019 is also the qualification year for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo with 4 weeks in July deciding which country will represent Europe at the Olympics in 2020. The road to Tokyo is very difficult but the Olympic dream is alive!

The pioneers of Team 1 started Ireland’s international odyssey against Austria on a cold and wet Sunday morning in July 2015, capping the week off with a memorable first ever victory against Israel.

On this International Womens Day, we thank all the players and coaches who have been part of this wonderful fastpitch journey to date and we look forward to teaching many girls into the future how to “throw like a girl”.  

by Colum Lavery

Coed Slowpitch National Team Trials Confirmed


Further to the successful first trial held indoors on February 24, 2019, the Coed Slowpitch National Team coaches have announced the dates for the second and third trial as follows 

March 10, 2019   Castleknock College   11am – 2pm
March 30, 2019   Castleknock College   11am – 2pm

  Players wishing to register for the trials should email senan_dormer@yahoo.co.uk. All players seeking to tryout must have or be eligible to receive an Irish Passport. The 2019 Coed European Slowpitch Championship will be held in Budapest on the 15-20th of July.  To help defray the cost we are asking for 10 Euro per person to be used towards the field rental.

by Colum Lavery

Slowpitch National Team Trials – February 24, 2019

Slowpitch National Team Trials 2019

The 2019 Co-ed European Slowpitch Championship will be held in Budapest from July 15 – July 20, 2019. 

Softball Ireland have reappointed Co-ed Slowpitch Head Coach, Senan Dormer for the 2019 who has appointed Eoin Coonan and Jonathan Spielberg as Assistant Coaches. Jay Slevin has been appointed as Logistics Manager and Karen Brady will come on board as the team’s Strength and Conditioning coach.

The first trial for the Irish National Slowpitch Team will be held indoors in Firhouse Community Hall on February 24, 2019 from 1pm to 4pm. 

Players wishing to register for the trials should email senan_dormer@yahoo.co.uk. 

All players seeking to tryout must have or be eligible to receive an Irish Passport.

To help defray the cost we are asking for 5 Euro per person to be used towards the hall.