{"id":32103,"date":"2018-03-14T12:38:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=32103"},"modified":"2018-03-14T12:38:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:38:17","slug":"mens-national-team-member-erick-ochoa-honored-as-2017-usa-softball-male-athlete-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=32103","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s National Team member Erick Ochoa honored as 2017 USA Softball Male Athlete of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Click to visit the official USA Softball website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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BY\u00a0KATIE WILLIS (KWILLIS@USASOFTBALL.COM)<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, is proud to announce the selection of Erick Ochoa (Imperial, Calif.) as the 2017 USA Softball Male Athlete of the Year.\u00a0 Competing as part of the\u00a02017 Men\u2019s National Team (MNT) in two international events last summer, Ochoa was a key factor in the U.S. claiming the Bronze Medal at the Pan American Championship in Santo Domingo, Dominican\u00a0Republic –\u00a0the first medal for the USA Softball\u00a0MNT\u00a0program since 2001.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am thrilled to have been selected as the USA Softball Male Athlete of the Year,\u201d said Ochoa.\u00a0\u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting it and feel honored to have received this recognition. First of all,\u00a0I would like to thank God for allowing me to play this sport. Also,\u00a0I would like to thank USA Softball for giving me the opportunity to represent the United States. This has been possible with the help of my coaches Denny\u00a0Bruckert, Gregg Leather and Greg Hicks who have allowed me to play alongside my teammates, who also in turn have given me good advice and confidence.\u00a0I would like to mention how important my family has been in all the support they have\u00a0continuously provided me, filling me with good vibes and encouragement in each practice and every game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ochoa made an appearance in every game for the Red, White and Blue last summer at the\u00a0World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC)\u00a0Men\u2019s World Championship and was consistent at the plate, finishing with a .381 (8-for-21) batting average\u00a0with five RBI, six runs scored and a home run.\u00a0Ochoa had continued\u00a0success at the Pan American Championship, leading the team with three home runs and a .724 slugging percentage while\u00a0tying\u00a0a team-high record of\u00a0nine RBI.<\/p>\n

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“Erick has clearly made his presence felt in the middle of Team USA’s lineup,\u201d said Men\u2019s National Team Head\u00a0Coach,\u00a0Gregg Leather. “He was among the team leaders in most categories at the WBSC\u00a0World Championship\u00a0in White Horse and the Pan\u00a0American\u00a0Championship in the Dominican Republic. His patience at the plate and refusal to chase bad pitches is something we\u2019d like all our hitters to emulate. He has become a consistent player at a very young age and his future in this game is very bright!”<\/p>\n

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You can find complete results from the 2017 Men\u2019s National Team season at\u00a0USASoftball.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KATIE WILLIS (KWILLIS@USASOFTBALL.COM) OKLAHOMA CITY \u2013 USA Softball, the National Governing Body of Softball in the United States, is proud to announce the selection of Erick Ochoa (Imperial, Calif.) as the 2017 USA Softball Male Athlete of the Year.\u00a0 Competing as part of the\u00a02017 Men\u2019s National Team (MNT) in two international events last summer, Ochoa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29753,"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":[28,19,61],"tags":[880,125,640,641],"class_list":{"0":"post-32103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-players","9":"category-usa-softball","10":"tag-flatoutrakes","11":"tag-usasoftball","12":"tag-usmnt","13":"tag-usmnt2017","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32103","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=32103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32104,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32103\/revisions\/32104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}