{"id":25129,"date":"2015-01-11T11:15:40","date_gmt":"2015-01-11T19:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=25129"},"modified":"2015-01-12T08:40:05","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T16:40:05","slug":"usa-mens-national-team-candidates-break-camp-await-announcement-of-final-2015-roster-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=25129","title":{"rendered":"USA Men’s National Team candidates break camp, await announcement of final 2015 roster"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for official USA MNT Softball website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They came from New Mexico, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Missouri, Massachusetts, Iowa, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Washington, Northern and Southern California. Through rain and sleet and snow, the USA National team candidates traveled, for one day of competition amongst each other, to Mark Daily Field at Irvine, California, Saturday, January 10, 2015. <\/p>\n

Click here to view Maddy’s Photos.<\/a>(If you can’t see photos right away, click the “Like” button on her page)<\/em><\/p>\n

Assistant Coach Nick McCurry left 10 inches of fresh snow in his home state of Ohio, spending two hours just to get to the airport to catch his flight to Orange County, California. Players from the colder regions of the country had similar travel challenges. But weather issues did not deter these athletes, nor did some morning rain in usually sunny Southern California. They made it to California, and spent the day on Saturday slugging it out, tossing their best pitches and working to show the USA coaching staff that they should be on the national team roster for 2015. <\/p>\n

Click here to view the photo album at ASA\/USA Softball<\/a><\/p>\n

The selection camp was the final opportunity for the USA Men’s Coaching staff to evaluate twenty seven of best fastpitch players in the country, who came from near and far, to compete for one of the seventeen spots on the final USA National Roster for 2015. <\/p>\n

The announcement of the final USA Men\u2019s National Team roster of 17 is expected during the coming week. <\/p>\n

\"Baserunning<\/a>
Chris Hineline of Columbia, MO rounds third at USA MNT Selection camp Saturday in Irvine CA (photo by Maddy Flanagan, click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summer of 2015 shapes up to be a very big year for men\u2019s fastpitch, with not one but two international competitions at its highest level of play, making a roster spot even more coveted than usual. The International Softball Federation (ISF) will hold its World Championship, from June 26 to July 5, in Saskatoon, Canada. Less than two weeks later, Toronto Canada plays host to the Pan American games, a multi-sport competition which includes Men\u2019s Fastpitch, from July 12-26, 2015.<\/p>\n

This summer’s ISF World Championship at Saskatoon this summer marks the first for Denny Bruckert and his staff, named early last year by USA Softball to run the program. The squad’s first foray into international competition was just a few months ago, in October 2014, in the Pan-Am qualifier in Parana Argentina<\/a>. The team played well in that tournament, led by ace pitcher Tony Mancha of Las Cruces, New Mexcio, finishing fourth, and earning a berth to the Pan American games to be held in Toronto this summer. <\/p>\n

The City of Irvine which hosted this camp is located near John Wayne Airport in Orange County, about a half-hour down the road from Disneyland. This past summer, the ISF held its women\u2019s World Cup at Bill Barber park, hosting teams from eight countries: Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Puerto Rico, USA, and Venezuela. <\/p>\n

The team had five pitchers in camp, Tony Mancha (Las Cruces NM), Gerald Muizelaar (Grand Forks, N.D.), Josh Johnson (El Paso TX), BJ Hunoff (Sioux Falls, S.D.) and Jim Hartman (Sioux Falls, S.D.). <\/p>\n

The coaching staff on hand for the Selection Camp included head coach Denny Bruckert, and assistants Greg Hicks, Gregg Leather and Nick McCurry. <\/p>\n

\"Tag<\/a>
Chris Miljavic tags Chase Turner at second base at USA MNT Selection camp Saturday at Irvine, CA (photo by Maddy Flanagan, click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Candidates at the camp:<\/p>\n

NAME\tHOMETOWN<\/p>\n

\n(Pitchers shown in bold)<\/strong>
\nMark Aranda\tLas Cruces, N.M.
\nKris Bogach\tHugeunot, N.Y.
\nFreddie Carmona\tSan Antonio, Texas
\nKevin Castillo\tLong Beach, Calif.
\nFrank DeGroat Jr.\tRingwood, N.J.
\nNate Devine\tSonora, Calif.
\nTyler Dudley\tBattle Creek, Mich.
\nLucas Goring\tMinneapolis, Minn.
\nBJ Gulick\tMinneapolis, Minn.
\nJim Hartman\tSioux Falls, S.D.<\/strong>
\nChris Hineline\tColumbia, Mo.
\nMike Hoadley\tWorcester, Mass.
\nBJ Hunoff\tSioux Falls, S.D.
\nJosh Johnson\tEl Paso, Texas<\/strong>
\nBryce Kay\tJefferson City, Mo.
\nDerrick Kennedy\tConverse, Texas
\nTony Mancha\tLas Cruces, N.M.<\/strong>
\nChris Miljavic\tEaston, Mo.
\nGerald Muizelaar\tGrand Forks, N.D.<\/strong>
\nNick Mullins\tToms River, N.J.
\nMatt Palazzo\tPleasant Hill, Iowa
\nBobby Rosthenhausler\tTucson, Ariz.
\nPat Sagdal\tRichland, Wash.
\nRylan Sandoval\tCastro Valley, Calif.
\nMarcus Tan\tUnion City, Calif.
\nChase Turner\tSan Jose, Calif.
\nDerrick Zechman\tWatsontown, Penn <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

COACHING STAFF<\/strong>
\nHead Coach
\nDenny Bruckert, Gillespie, Ill.
\nAssistant Coaches
\nGreg Hicks, Bakersfield, Calif.
\nGregg Leather, Staten Island, NY
\nNick McCurry, Ashland, Ohio<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They came from New Mexico, New York, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Missouri, Massachusetts, Iowa, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Washington, Northern and Southern California. Through rain and sleet and snow, the USA National team candidates traveled, for one day of competition amongst each other, to Mark Daily Field at Irvine, California, Saturday, January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25138,"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":[3,12,40,20,61],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-asa","8":"category-isf","9":"category-roster","10":"category-so-cal","11":"category-usa-softball","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129","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=25129"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25175,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25129\/revisions\/25175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}