{"id":23581,"date":"2014-06-25T11:35:56","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=23581"},"modified":"2014-06-25T11:41:32","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T18:41:32","slug":"big-hitter-makes-new-zealand-jrs-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=23581","title":{"rendered":"Big hitter makes New Zealand Jrs. squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"whitehorse.2014.logo.sm\"<\/a>From Stuff.co.nz<\/em><\/p>\n

\nEditor’s note:<\/strong> For those of us metrically challenged, I ran the conversions. 1.94m and 113kg translates to 6’4″ and 249 pounds. Big boy. Pitchers beware. (Click link to original story for photo of Fraser) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

RISING STAR: Newlands College softball star Fraser McLaren leaves New Zealand on Saturday for the junior world championships in Canada.<\/p>\n

Fraser McLaren makes an imposing sight in the batter’s box.<\/p>\n

The Newlands College student, who will take part in the junior world championships in Canada next month, is built to hit a long ball – at 1.94m and more than 110kg.<\/p>\n

His profile on the Softball New Zealand website lists him at 110kg but he has put on weight while training for the world championships.<\/p>\n

“We were weighed the other day and I was 113kg,” McLaren said. “I’m hoping that is good weight – in the form of muscle. But my fitness has definitely improved.”<\/p>\n

Softball is the sport of choice for the McLaren family but Fraser has rarely been an age-group star and his elevation to the Junior Black Sox this year represents a significant step up.<\/p>\n

The year-13 student did not make the Wellington side at under-17 level and played for Whanganui at the national tournament instead.<\/p>\n

He has since played two national tournaments for the Wellington under-19 side but his prospects of getting to the world championships looked slim when he missed the initial training camps.<\/p>\n

“I snuck through from the back. When I missed the training camps, I didn’t give much thought to making the team.<\/p>\n

“But before the under-19 tournament [in Hamilton in January] we were told that everybody would be watched and I realised that I still had a shot.”<\/p>\n

McLaren had “quite a successful tournament” at Hamilton and found himself in the world championships team. Click here to read the complete story at Stuff.co.nz<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Stuff.co.nz Editor’s note: For those of us metrically challenged, I ran the conversions. 1.94m and 113kg translates to 6’4″ and 249 pounds. Big boy. Pitchers beware. (Click link to original story for photo of Fraser) RISING STAR: Newlands College softball star Fraser McLaren leaves New Zealand on Saturday for the junior world championships in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22603,"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":[12,35,19,27],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-isf","8":"category-oceania","9":"category-players","10":"category-youth","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581","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=23581"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23586,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23581\/revisions\/23586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}