Intervarsity Waterford November 2007

On Friday 2nd of November a "student and friends" delegation of Belfast Softball Club travelled to Waterford for the first in a series of Intervarsity Softball Games. The Intervarsity Softball Tournament is played among teams from Limerick, Waterford, Dublin and this year Belfast.

After the long drive down, 4 hours.... IF YOU DON'T COUNT M50!!! we all managed to arrive safely at the UCD arranged hotel. On the Saturday we started the day at 10:00 with our first match. It was still a bit chilly and the grass wet with dew which made it excellent for sliding... for some of us.

The first match was against Waterford Sharks and after a bad start (we are not a first inning team) we managed to get our act together in the second and third inning. With a score of 4-3 for the Brawlers, Meghan on second base and Terry as short stop, we went into the fourth inning overwhelming the Sharks with a super score bringing the final score to 10-5 for the Brawlers. A win... this is a good beginning!!!

The second match was played after a 1 hour break (our lunch was a bit early but we needed a rest...after a night of boozing). Maybe due to the break or our long night before, we started again with a losing inning. We were quickly brought back to reality when the second inning saw 4 runs scored by the UL Snakebites. The Brawlers fought back in the fourth inning with Connor pitching and some excellent out-fielding by Damian but this could not prevent the 6-1 runs against us and setting the final score to a win for UL Snakebites with 6-14.

The third match soon after the second saw the sun coming out and high pitched balls were hard to hit with the blinding sun behind them. Maybe this was the tactic of our pitcher Damian because his pitches and our fielding and batting made it a tight game. Up until the fifth inning the score was 4-3 to the Brawlers but a smashing fifth inning with 9 over 4 runs  made it hard for the UL Jags to get back in the game. A fair effort was tempted in the final inning but with a score of 13-8 it was the Brawlers taking their second victory of the day.

The fourth match was again very sunny (sunburn in November in Ireland!?!). With a bad first inning the Brawlers fought back in the third and fourth. With a one man double play by Connor the UL JD's were but back in their place and a super inning got the Brawlers back in the game. The fifth inning was tight ending in a final game score of 6-5 for the Brawlers. We were on a roll now (3-1 baby)!!!

The final match of the day and the hardest match to play in the field as the sun was low and blinding. Starting slowly for both teams the UCD Typhoons managed to open the score in the second inning with 1 run. The Brawlers being awoken by this started scoring in the third and fourth inning with 6 runs against 3. Another double play and some nasty outs (mind your heads when Connor is around) the Brawlers finished the game winning 10-7.

YEAH,.... FOUR - ONE BABY!!!!

We finished a great day with four wins over one loss against some great teams. Well done Brawlers, this brought us in the semi-final of the plate the next day.

The Plate semi-final meant that the highest 2 teams of the recreation league (including us) were up against the 2 lowest teams of the competitive league. The Semi was a tired looking Brawlers against a less tired looking UCD Blizzards on the Sunday morning. Again a damp day perfect for Softball but unfortunately the Brawlers suffered from that first inning loss a bit too much (1-4). The second inning we fought back against this strong team but did not manage to top their score of 2-3. Again the Blizzards were too strong during the fourth inning and even though the Brawlers won the last inning with 2 runs the game was lost with 5-10.

4 - 1 BABY

Thanks to the team for a great weekend:
Karen, Meghan, Heather, Nicky, Carrie, Terry, Connor, Graham, Damian, Martin and Maarten (me).