The Belfast Sliders bring home Silverware from Limerick!
Friday: After a long commute, the Belfast Sliders (Marian, Jay, Emma, Lindsay, Kirsty, Laura, Tim, Michal, Jonny, Dan, Andrew and Casey) headed to the Sports Bar for a quiz, games and music!
Saturday: The Sliders played six games and unfortunately came out the wrong side of five of the results, but managed one draw against the Bottom Fielders!
Saturday night: The Sliders glammed up with the Eighties theme night at The Stables. Emma and Tim took the accolade of Best Dressed Sliders (and getting some very strange looks on the way to the bar!). The team rocked the dance floor, got slightly competitive over a game of swing-ball, and Andrew and Dan won a game of beer pong! The Sliders also found out that while glitter seems like a good idea at the time, you will still be sparkling for days after applying it to your face!
Sunday: An 11am start and no friendly, so the Sliders played an inter-team challenge in teams of four but got distracted by Grace bringing coffee/tea for the team, so in short we don’t know who won! The Sliders first game was against Marley-Suspects (who they lost to in a friendly the previous day), but Sliders came back with vengeance and claimed their first win. Of note, Laura went into MVP mode and made several big catches in the outfield before driving a home run! Next up were the Galway Hookers, with another win for the Sliders and the news that they had made the Plate Final.
Plate final: The Sliders faced the Mavericks who were placed top of the Plate group. Marian pitched, Andrew caught, Kirsty was at first base, the Derletas (Emma and Michael) took up second and third bases, and Dan (after a good display against Galway) reclaimed shortstop for the last game. Outfield was manned by Laura, Casey, Tim and Jay, while Jonny and Lindsay extra hitting completed the line-up. There was great hitting across the board as the Sliders scored 11 runs in the second inning and 8 in the third! The Mavericks staged a comeback with a two-out rally, but it was too late as the Sliders got the final out to seal the win and claim the IOST Plate!
Massive thanks to all twelve of the Sliders who played this weekend! Marian, who captained the team to victory, was extremely proud of the team playing 5:5 all weekend – with everyone taking turns at extra hitting, and lot of people playing new positions (including several new shortstops!). Special thanks go to: Michael and Jay for cooking breakfasts; Tim organising accommodation, etc; Andrew designing and ordering the rainbow t-shirts for the weekend, and relaying scores to Softball Ireland (SI); SI, Elaine Barr and Julie Trundle for organising and delivering a great weekend; Grace and Gerry for the Sunday morning coffee run; and everyone else that played and contributed to great weekend in Limerick!
Roll on 2020!