{"id":16724,"date":"2012-06-19T15:07:21","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T22:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16724"},"modified":"2012-06-19T15:27:35","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T22:27:35","slug":"alvinston-indians-hang-tough-with-world-class-new-zealand-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=16724","title":{"rendered":"Alvinston Indians hang tough with world class New Zealand National team"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dan Punch, Sun Media, Sarnia Observer<\/em><\/p>\n

\nTake away the New Zealand national anthem, the indecipherable Kiwi softball chatter, and the conspicuously large 500-strong crowd, and it could have been any other night at the ballpark in Alvinston.<\/p>\n

The Alvinston Indians battled to a tough 5-1 loss, in a game where the better team won, but not by much.<\/p>\n

But instead of battling their usual St. Thomas and District Men\u2019s Fastball League foes, the Indians were playing one of the top fastball teams in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for complete story and photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The New Zealand Black Sox came to Alvinston Monday night, the first game of a six-stop southwestern Ontario tour gearing up for the 2012 Legends Fastball Tournament this weekend in Kitchener.<\/p>\n

The Indians struggled at times to keep up with the stellar Black Sox pitching, but held their own and rarely looked outmatched.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is their country\u2019s best,\u201d Indians coach Paul McCart said after the game. \u201cWe were in the game the entire game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvinston knocked five hits on the night, but committed three costly errors. The scrappy Black Sox used their good baserunning to take advantage of every mistake.<\/p>\n

New Zealand also showed some power, including a Thomas Makea opposite-field homer which started off a three-run second inning – one of two Black Sox blasts on the night.<\/p>\n

Alvinston\u2019s offence sputtered most of the game. But their lone run came in exciting fashion on Alix Chisolm pinch-hit, inside the park home run. Chisolm drove one down the third base line which took a few favourable hops on its way to the left field corner. His Indians teammates erupted as Chisolm chugged across home plate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt got pretty competitive, and that\u2019s the way it should be,\u201d McCart said.<\/p>\n

The Black Sox have toured North America and Australia leading up to next year\u2019s ISF Men\u2019s World Softball Championships. About 90% of the team that visited Alvinston is expected to make the world championship roster.<\/p>\n

The tour has served to scout other countries\u2019 talent, and help showcase the sport, said Black Sox pitching coach Chubb Tangaroa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to grow the sport,\u201d said Tangaroa , who spent 15 years playing in North America in the International Softball Congress, including a stop in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n

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

By Dan Punch, Sun Media, Sarnia Observer Take away the New Zealand national anthem, the indecipherable Kiwi softball chatter, and the conspicuously large 500-strong crowd, and it could have been any other night at the ballpark in Alvinston. The Alvinston Indians battled to a tough 5-1 loss, in a game where the better team won, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16725,"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":[5,35],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-oceania","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16724","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=16724"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16728,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16724\/revisions\/16728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}