{"id":16513,"date":"2012-05-30T07:05:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16513"},"modified":"2012-05-30T07:05:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:05:16","slug":"new-zealand-trio-excited-to-spend-summer-in-fargo-playing-softball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16513","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand trio excited to spend summer in Fargo playing softball"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for complete story and photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>New Zealand trio excited to spend summer in Fargo playing softball
\nFargo – Aaron Knight, Jackson Prime and Zane Van Lieshout flew more than 10,000 miles to play fastpitch softball.<\/p>\n

By: Eric Peterson, INFORUM<\/a><\/p>\n

All three landed in Fargo a few weeks back, completing a journey that started in Auckland, N.Z., and had stops in Sydney, Australia; Los Angeles; and Denver along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was the opportunity of a lifetime to come over to the states and play softball,\u201d said the 19-year-old Van Lieshout. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to travel overseas and play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight, Prime and Van Lieshout played their first games with the Bar 9 West Fargo Knights last week. They will be here until September.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guys on our team they are very excited to have them here,\u201d said Matt Johnson, one of the players on the Knights.<\/p>\n

This international player exchange of sorts started with Johnson. He played in New Zealand last October. Johnson was at a national tournament in Rockford, Ill., when he was approached by someone from New Zealand. That person gave Johnson contact information for a coach of a softball club in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited about it right away,\u201d said Johnson, who is the head fastpitch softball coach at Fargo Shanley High School. \u201cI didn\u2019t think that it was actually going to work out, and they contacted me and said they wanted to bring me over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was teammates with Prime and Knight. Van Lieshout played on another team in the same league. That\u2019s where the idea of having the three to come over and play for the Knights started.<\/p>\n

Prime, a 17-year-old pitcher, is also a member on New Zealand\u2019s 19-and-under national team that is scheduled to play in the Junior Men\u2019s Fastpitch World Championship in Argentina in November.<\/p>\n

Coming to North Dakota will give him a chance to prepare for that with this being the winter season in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinter is pretty miserable in New Zealand,\u201d Prime said. \u201cWe just get real miserable rainy weather and heaps of dark clouds every day. \u2026 I came over here to get some pitching in before the World Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three New Zealand players are expected to play key roles for the Knights this summer.<\/p>\n

Prime is projected to be the team\u2019s No. 1 pitcher. Knight and Van Lieshout are expected to hit at the top of the batting order.<\/p>\n

The three \u2013 who are all staying with host families \u2013 not only came here to hone their softball games, but also to experience a new culture.<\/p>\n

They have already found themselves dining out more here than in New Zealand because it\u2019s much more affordable here and there are more options.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that we were really shocked about is there is like free refills everywhere,\u201d Knight said with a laugh. \u201cBack home if you finish your drink you have to pay for another one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight was worried when the server kept refilling his soft drink glass the first time he went out for dinner here.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Matt told us that it was free so we were happy about that,\u201d Knight said. <\/p>\n

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

New Zealand trio excited to spend summer in Fargo playing softball Fargo – Aaron Knight, Jackson Prime and Zane Van Lieshout flew more than 10,000 miles to play fastpitch softball. By: Eric Peterson, INFORUM All three landed in Fargo a few weeks back, completing a journey that started in Auckland, N.Z., and had stops in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16514,"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":[21,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16513","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-teams","8":"category-youth","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16515,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16513\/revisions\/16515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}