Ashbourne Baseball Club

The Ashbourne Baseball Club is Ireland's largest baseball club.[1] It is located in Ashbourne, County Meath, and draws players from the surrounding area, including Dublin. The club was created in 2009 as the Garristown Gruffalos. The club competes in the Irish Baseball League and plays in the International Baseball Centre.[2]

History

The Ashbourne Baseball Club was formed as a Little League team (“Garristown Gruffalos") in 2009. In 2012, the club relocated to Ashbourne, County Meath to become the Ashbourne Giants.

The club competed solely as a little league club until 2014, when the club entered its first adult team in the B Division of the Irish Baseball League. In 2018, the Club took its next step forward in entering a second adult team in the A Division of the Irish Baseball League. In 2019, the growth of the club continued with the creation of a second team in the B division, the Ashbourne Stags. In 2020, the club intends to launch its first adult coed slow pitch softball team, the Ashbourne Antlers.

Baseball Divisions

Coach Pitch is the club's youngest age group, for kids under 10. It teaches kids the basics of baseball in a fun, game filled environment. Coaches use games to teach kids about base running, fielding situations and batting. Games are set up with other teams with coaches throwing underhand to the batters.

The Little League program is for kids aged 9–12 and brings in more stable rules and mechanics to baseball. In Little League, kids start playing more specialised positions and pitchers and catchers are introduced. The field played on is a little bigger and a full league schedule is played in the early summer months every year.

Players 13 and 14 join our Cadet Baseball program. In our cadet program, they train with our adult teams and play against other cadet teams in the Dublin area. In addition, they play in the B division of the Irish Baseball League with the Giants U21 team. At the age of 15, they play full time in the B division.

The club has two teams in the B division of the Irish Baseball League, the Ashbourne Giants and Ashbourne Stags.

The Ashbourne Giants U21 team is focused on youth development. Players is made up of our players under the age of 21 with some older players and coaches supplementing the roster. Young players develop as they train with players and coaches of the three Adult teams. The coaches make sure the young players play in situations designed to build confidence, not destroy it.

The Ashbourne Stags team is the home of adult players of all abilities and experience levels. It competes in the B division of the Irish League. The Stags is the place where new adult players join the club. Training with the experienced players on the team, their development is accelerated and become contributing members of the team quickly.

The Ashbourne Giants A division team is the home of the best players in the club and competes at the highest levels in the Irish Baseball League.

Stadium

The International Baseball Centre (IBC) is the home field of the Ashbourne Baseball Club. It opened in 2015.[3] The IBC is also the host field for the International Baseball Festival, an annual international baseball tournament held in Ashbourne.[4] The crowning moment for the IBC was it being the host field for a tournament in the 2019 European Baseball Championship - Qualification held in Ireland in 2018.[5]

Championships
  • Baseball Ireland Little League Champions (3): 2015, 2016, 2017[6]
  • Baseball Ireland B Division Regular Season Champions (1): 2017[6]
  • Baseball Ireland B Division Champions (1): 2017[6]

References
  1. "Baseball Ireland". www.baseballireland.com. Retrieved 2018-12-30.
  2. https://www.the42.ie/baseball-ireland-ashbourne-2692887-Apr2016/
  3. "New International Baseball Center opens in Ashbourne, Ireland | CEB". baseballeurope.com. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  4. "Meath Chronicle - Mexico emerge as baseball tournament champions in". Meath Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  5. "Meath Chronicle - Four nations join Ireland in European Baseball Qualifiers in Ashbourne". Meath Chronicle. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  6. http://ashbournebaseball.com/about-the-club/
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