{"id":16212,"date":"2012-04-09T14:46:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T21:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16212"},"modified":"2012-04-09T14:47:17","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T21:47:17","slug":"stephen-ratus-final-home-run-lifts-red-sox-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16212","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Ratu’s final home-run lifts Red Sox (NZ)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cap tip Blair Setford:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for complete story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Former Black Sox catcher Stephen Ratu bowed out of big-time softball with a home run as the Canterbury Red Sox defended their Southern Cross Challenge title yesterday.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old Canterbury co-captain had three hits from four at-bats as the Red Sox beat the New Zealand Junior Black Sox 6-2 in yesterday’s final at Mainland Foundation Ballpark.<\/p>\n

Ratu confirmed he was “hanging up the cleats” after the game.<\/p>\n

“My national career is done but I’m undecided yet about club softball next season,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s the right time to go.<\/p>\n

“My kids are growing up and we’ve got enough good young players coming through.”<\/p>\n

Ratu came to Canterbury four years ago from Wellington.<\/p>\n

He helped lead the Red Sox to the national championship title last year.<\/p>\n

The 2009 world championships representative led from the front again yesterday, powering the ball over the centrefield fence for Canterbury’s first run in the second inning.<\/p>\n

He backed up that blast with two singles in a fairytale finish.<\/p>\n

“You couldn’t ask for much more, really, hitting a home run in my last game for Canterbury. A lot of people lose their last game, but this is a good win to treasure.”<\/p>\n

Canterbury had other hitting heroes, with infielder Stephen McFarlane also picking up three hits, including a triple, but Ratu’s was the only home run.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue reading at The Press NZ<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cap tip Blair Setford: Former Black Sox catcher Stephen Ratu bowed out of big-time softball with a home run as the Canterbury Red Sox defended their Southern Cross Challenge title yesterday. The 37-year-old Canterbury co-captain had three hits from four at-bats as the Red Sox beat the New Zealand Junior Black Sox 6-2 in yesterday’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oceania","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16214,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16212\/revisions\/16214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}