Emo rounders continued their dominance at underage level by picking up the first All-Ireland titles of the year last weekend where they triumphed at U-14 boys and girls feile’s hosted in Monaghan.
Emo U-14 girls went to Monaghan with a certain amount of confidence having won the Leinster Final against Glynn Barntown of Wexford a couple of weeks previous.
The girls faced tough competition in their first two matches, but kept their cool and won both matches well, securing them a place in the final against Cavan’s.
It was a proper team display with everyone excelling throughout the competition with captain Laura Meredith leading the way at shortstop with Lily Horgan also putting in a brilliant performance as bowler.
Jessica Dwyer was steady in backstop making some fantastic outs. Rachel Dwyer, Katie Moore and Brianna O’Reilly all made great plays on their bases making sure the runners didn’t get too far.
Emo’s outfielders were kept busy but Kaila Ryan, Aoileann Ní Chomhraidhe and Sadbh Ní Chomhraidhe all made great stops and throws to lead their team to glory.
Emo cruised through the day and were never tested and won the All-Ireland final 23-4 with two battings in hand with an awesome display.
Emo’s U-14 Boys were also victorious on the day but were forced to battle hard throughout.
Their first game was against Seán Connolly’s of Longford. Emo opened up the tournament with an impressive win.
Next up was a game against Connacht champions, Michael Glavey’s of Roscommon.
Emo never really got out of first gear and came out with the victory.
Na Fianna of Dublin awaited Emo next. Both teams last met in the Leinster final a couple of weeks ago and after an epic battle involving many extra innings, Na Fianna finally edged the final.
Emo that this was going to be an extremely tough battle. Na Fianna, playing with only seven players were ruthless and beat Emo quite easily.
With one group game left, Emo knew it was win or bust as they faced Erne Eagles of Cavan knowing anything, but a win meant an early exit from the competition.
The Laois lads put in a stunning performance when it mattered and overcame their opponents to book a place in the semi-finals.
Emo would go on to play Michael Glavey’s again and showed their real potential and blew the Roscommon side away to book a place in the final showdown against Na Fianna.
This was the third time these teams played in two weeks and again it treated the spectators to a brilliant game.
After a marathon day Emo boys, having played their first match at 10am lined out again at 5.45pm in the sweltering heat and put in a champions performance against the Dublin side who were now bolstered by the return of some county hurlers and took to the field with a full team of nine players.
Emo won toss and fielded first. Some positional changes were made to curtail the big hitters of Na Fianna.
The first shot leathered out the field by Na Fianna was caught by Eoin O’Connell.
It was obvious from the very beginning that Emo raised their game to another level after the previous two losses against the Dublin side.
Massive hits and excellent fielding from both teams made this an enthralling spectacle of a game. The game slowly moved towards the last innings.
Going into bat at the top of the last innings, Na Fianna were behind by five. To their credit though, they batted and ran the bases really well to go ahead on a score of 24-15.
This meant that Emo going into bat at the bottom of the final innings would need to score 10 runs to win.
This was going to be a mammoth task, especially with Emo’s first batter getting caught out.
Emo, however, fought tooth and nail and slowly ate away at Na Fianna’s lead. With no one from Emo aware of the score, up stepped Oscar Suda to bat with the bases loaded.
Suda, who had already hit a couple of homeruns during the day, didn’t disappoint. He hit a rocket of a shot outfield to clear the bases and secure Emo a victory on a scoreline of 26-24.
With the underage season only a few weeks old, Emo are already All Ireland U-14 Boys’ and U-14 Girls’ champions along with being Leinster U-14 Girls’ champions and Leinster U-14 Mixed champions and are looking to continue their dominance at the U-13 competition in Roscommon on May 31.
Emo U-14 boys’ panel: Tommy Murphy (Captain), Jack Gleeson, Caolán Gilliland, Seán Hyland, Charlie Merriman, Adam Riippa, Darragh Hyland, Seán Kiernan, Daragh Donnelly, Ronin Ryan, Eoin O’Connell, Oscar Suda.
Emo U-14 girls’ panel: Laura Meredith (Captain), Kaila Ryan, Katie Moore, Jessica Dwyer, Sadhbh Ní Chomhraidhe, Lily Horgan, Aoileann Ní Chomhraidhe, Brianna O’Reilly & Rachel Dwyer.
