{"id":3455,"date":"2009-07-17T15:10:04","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T22:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3455"},"modified":"2009-07-17T15:25:56","modified_gmt":"2009-07-17T22:25:56","slug":"wahlford-to-replace-injured-enoka-for-black-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=3455","title":{"rendered":"Wahlford to Replace Injured Enoka for Black Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n(click logo for original news story)
\n<\/em>
\nInjury blow for Black Sox <\/strong><\/p>\n

New Zealand have suffered a blow on the eve of the world men’s softball championship in Canada, with injury ruling out teenage pitcher Thomas Enoka.<\/p>\n

A lingering back niggle hasn’t improved, forcing coach Eddie Kohlhase to release the North Harbour player, the youngest member of the Black Sox squad in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n

He is replaced by American-based outfielder Paul Walford, who was a member of the 1996 New Zealand world champion squad.<\/p>\n

Kohlhase said Enoka – a member of last year’s New Zealand junior team – had been undergoing constant treatment in recent days.<\/p>\n

“We left it right to the last minute. It’s unfortunate news for the team and for Thomas, he’s only 18,” Kohlhase told Radio Sport.<\/p>\n

“It puts us down to a three-man pitching rotation, he was the fourth pitcher.<\/p>\n

“It changes our plans, not significantly, but enough to ensure that we manage them very efficiently and effectively now.”<\/p>\n

Carrying the load<\/strong><\/p>\n

New Zealand pitchers Marty Grant, Jeremy Manley and Heinie Shannon will carry more of the load over the 10-day tournament as New Zealand chase a sixth world title.<\/p>\n

It starts with Saturday’s (NZT) opening pool game against old foe the United States<\/p>\n

Kohlhase was pleased with his team’s lengthy buildup in North America and hoped his team were ready for a major challenge in their opening match.<\/p>\n

“You don’t win a world championship on the first day of the competition,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But we certainly want to make a good start to the tournament and set the standard from the opening game.<\/p>\n

“The preparation for this has been five years in the making and everyone has worked towards this.”<\/p>\n

A lot of interest in centre around who he gives the ball to for the start of the game.<\/p>\n

Sharp form<\/strong><\/p>\n

Grant is playing in his fourth world championship but Manley and Shannon have been in sharp form.<\/p>\n

Management will also be taking an interest in their next opponents Great Britain, who play the Philippines 10 hours before the Black Sox open their campaign.<\/p>\n

The Great Britain line-up includes a number of New Zealand ex-pats and Kohlhase would not be too surprised if they make it to the playoff round of games which begin on July 25.<\/p>\n

“They could be a team that surprise,” Kohlhase said.<\/p>\n

The top four teams from the two sections of eight teams qualify for the playoff round, with the Black Sox’ chief rivals in pool A being the US and Japan, who New Zealand face in their last match.<\/p>\n

The fourth spot should be fiercely contested between Great Britain, Mexico, Denmark, Philippines and Botswana.<\/p>\n

“It will be interesting to see how those teams treat their games against the bigger sides,” Kohlhase said.<\/p>\n

In some situations the lesser teams virtually concede the outcome against top sides, fielding weaker teams which results in a game being called before the regulation seventh innings.<\/p>\n

At the 2004 tournament in Christchurch, New Zealand had six of their 10 games finish earlier because of the number of runs they had scored.<\/p>\n

“We just need to focus on what we want to achieve and the goals we have set for ourselves in each game,” Kohlhase said.<\/p>\n

Kohlhase expects Canada, Argentina, Australia play Venzuela to challenge for playoff berths in pool B.<\/p>\n

Below:<\/strong> Photo borrowed from Facebook page of New Zealand’s Travis Wilson, showing jerseys of defending world champions.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(click logo for original news story) Injury blow for Black Sox New Zealand have suffered a blow on the eve of the world men’s softball championship in Canada, with injury ruling out teenage pitcher Thomas Enoka. A lingering back niggle hasn’t improved, forcing coach Eddie Kohlhase to release the North Harbour player, the youngest member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}