{"id":28272,"date":"2015-07-30T10:32:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-30T17:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=28272"},"modified":"2015-07-30T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2015-07-30T17:41:23","slug":"asa-boys-and-mens-fastpitch-championships-start-thursday-at-emerson-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=28272","title":{"rendered":"ASA boys’ and men’s fastpitch championships start Thursday at Emerson Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ASA_Softball_Logo\"<\/a>By Adam Smith, Midland Daily News<\/a><\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s Amateur Softball Association National Championships in men\u2019s and boys\u2019 fastpitch at Emerson Park will have a very local feel.<\/p>\n

Eighteen of the 25 teams in the six divisions competing from Thursday through Sunday are from Michigan, and the other seven teams are from other states in the Midwest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do wish we had more teams coming in from out of state, but that being said, we want to make sure that we\u2019re doing the best thing for the betterment of the game, and specifically the game in our area,\u201d said David Lach, a Midland Explorers Booster Club tournament committee host member, who will help coach the 23-and-under Midland Explorers Blue team and also play for Up to Date Painting of Millington in the 40-and-over division.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom that standpoint, we\u2019re not discouraged by it,\u201d Lach added of the fact that Michigan teams form the majority of the field this weekend. \u201cTeams have multiple opportunities to play (around the country), and this is just one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lach noted that the Explorers Booster Club also appealed to other teams from around the country, letting them know that their players could be placed on one of the participating teams\u2019 rosters at nationals. And a number of players accepted that offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got probably 12 to 15 (players) coming (from other states) that we helped place on local teams,\u201d said Lach.<\/p>\n

In addition, the 18U USA National Team has been practicing at Emerson all week, and its players will be dispersed among the six teams in the 18U division this weekend.<\/p>\n

Admission is free to spectators for all of the approximately 50 games of the tournament. Games will be played at Currie Stadium and the other two fields at Emerson. Click here to continue reading at the Midland Daily News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Adam Smith, Midland Daily News This weekend\u2019s Amateur Softball Association National Championships in men\u2019s and boys\u2019 fastpitch at Emerson Park will have a very local feel. Eighteen of the 25 teams in the six divisions competing from Thursday through Sunday are from Michigan, and the other seven teams are from other states in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28133,"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":[3,28,27],"tags":[338,339,189],"class_list":{"0":"post-28272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asa","8":"category-featured","9":"category-youth","10":"tag-asaboys","11":"tag-asaboys2015","12":"tag-usajrmen","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272","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=28272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28274,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28272\/revisions\/28274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}