It may not be the World Series but Ireland's baseball team is building a formidable reputation. The team has won through its group matches to compete in today's European Championship semi-final in Antwerp.
The 20-strong squad has overcome disruptions caused by rain interruptions to see off pool rivals Slovakia (6-2) and Norway (7-1) and progress along with heavily fancied Croatia to the semi-final stage today.
But team manager Seán Mitchell hopes Ireland can go further for the first time in the 10-year history of the sport in Ireland.
"So far, we have done what we had to do but we have not played our best yet," he said. "We are looking to progress to the elite European competition which takes place next year."
To join the top 10 European baseball powers in what is an Olympic qualifying event, Ireland will have to win the current competition.
Their best performance to date was in Germany in 2004, where the Irish team secured bronze.
"With baseball scheduled to be dropped from the Olympic roster for the 2012 games, this could be the last chance we have to compete in an Olympic qualifier for some time," says Mitchell.
One of the stars of the current competition has been catcher and third baseman Gareth Donnelly.
His strong hitting has been instrumental in helping Ireland out of its group.
The squad also features Cuban-born Jimmy Pita, who has lived in Ireland from a young age and whose baseball prowess looks set to secure him a place at college in Florida.
Baseball in Ireland emerged from the ranks of another US game, softball, which has been popular here since the early 1990s. There are now eight teams at four clubs around Dublin and a further two in Northern Ireland.
"We are growing reasonably strongly," says Mitchell, who notes the Irish game now features players from Romania, Slovakia, Japan, Cuba and Finland, undermining the notion that it is purely an American sport.
"But the real explosion has been at the kids' level, and we now have children playing over the summer in 10 or 11 counties with the help of coaches who have come over from the US.
Around two-thirds of the current squad is Irish-based, with the rest qualifying through parentage.
"Our team has improved every contest but so has the general standard," says Mitchell, preparing his players for a probable semi-final tilt at host team Belgium.
