{"id":20598,"date":"2013-03-21T09:10:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T16:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20598"},"modified":"2013-03-21T09:12:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T16:12:44","slug":"out-of-season-out-of-sorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=20598","title":{"rendered":"Out of season, out of sorts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>
Click to view original news story.<\/figcaption><\/figure>National softball team not mentally prepared to play their best ball at world championships: Boland<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the end, says St. John\u2019s native Ryan Boland, Team Canada wasn\u2019t as mentally sharp as they needed to be at the 2013 ISF XIII Men’s World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Boland, along with Newfoundlanders Jason Hill of St. John\u2019s, Sean Cleary and Brad Ezekiel of Harbour Main along with Stephen Mullaley of Freshwater, now living in?Toronto, and Sean Whitten, originally from Petty Harbour now living in Calgary, helped Canada to a 6-1 round-robin record before dropping two straight playoff round games in Kiwi Country.<\/p>\n

Boland said the players were \u201csuper jet-lagged\u201d when they got into Auckland after a 16-hour plane ride from Vancouver.
\n\u201cWe practised the day we landed and then for the next 10 days prior to the start of the tournament,\u201d explained Boland.
\n\u201cIt took us about a week to work out the bugs, but we felt better after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s round-robin performance included a 9-7, eight-inning victory over New Zealand Black Sox who would go on to win the championship.<\/p>\n

Ezekiel was three-for-five and Boland collected two hits with each player smacking a home run in the win over the host team.
\nThe New Zealand players impressed Boland with their intensity and all out style of play.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand is known for their talent, but also the way they try to intimidate their opponents,\u201d notes Boland.
\nThe Black Sox began all games with the team doing the Haka, the traditional ancestral war cry\/dance which most sports fans will recognize from watching the country\u2019s All Blacks rugby team.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir fans were loud and hostile and the players slide high into the bases, cleats up. They don\u2019t play to make friends. They play to win,\u201d said Boland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were friendly off the field, but they were all business when the games started.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Canada enjoyed succes in the round-robin, the playoffs were a different matter, as Canada was knocked out after a 3-1 loss to Venezuela and 2-1 defeat at the hands of Argentina.
\n\u201cI think we just got beat by better teams to be honest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper, our team was definitely as good as any of the other teams. But, while our pitchers did well, we didn\u2019t hit as well as we should have.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Boland believes the time of year had something to do with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bats weren\u2019t sharp. Everyone was game ready, but not situationally ready.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had our reps, but not in big moments\u2026 in crucial situations. It takes a long time to build your confidence to produce in the bottom of the seventh with men on base. That only comes after playing a full season, not when you are cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hill, who was attending his first ISF tournament, said everyone was willing to play whatever role needed. He came off the bench to pinch hit four or five times, something he\u2019s not used to in the local senior circuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little while yet before we get over not coming home with at least a bronze medal, but it\u2019s been a learning experience, for sure,\u201d said Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not making any excuses. I mean, we can analyze it to death. But we just didn\u2019t hit the ball when we needed to.\u201d<\/span> He said the improvement of other countries at the elite level of the game was a real eye opener for him.<\/p>\n

He said he won\u2019t soon forget his time in New Zealand, adding, \u201dIt was unbelievable to be in that part of the world.\u201d
\nBoland and Hill said the Newfoundlanders on the team played well and had a good time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also showed that our (Molson St. John’s Senior Softball) league is as good as any in the world,\u201d noted Boland.
\nBoland has a busy summer ahead playing on three teams; Imagewear Custom Apparel in the St. John\u2019s league, with 3-Cheers Pub at nationals and with defending ISC world champion Jarvis Travellers of Ontario.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the next ISF world championship is scheduled for 2015 in Saskatoon, Sask., and Boland would like to be there.
\n\u201cI\u2019m looking to be a part of that. It\u2019s a goal of mine,\u201d Boland said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National softball team not mentally prepared to play their best ball at world championships: Boland In the end, says St. John\u2019s native Ryan Boland, Team Canada wasn\u2019t as mentally sharp as they needed to be at the 2013 ISF XIII Men’s World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand earlier this month. Boland, along with Newfoundlanders Jason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18129,"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":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-isf","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598","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=20598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20600,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20598\/revisions\/20600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}