{"id":27706,"date":"2015-06-27T10:15:24","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T17:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27706"},"modified":"2015-06-27T10:15:24","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T17:15:24","slug":"veteran-u-s-catcher-sees-role-expanded-due-to-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=27706","title":{"rendered":"Veteran U.S. catcher sees role expanded due to injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>DeGroat calls shots as U.S. wins<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestarphoenix.com\/sports\/Veteran+catcher+sees+role+expanded+injury\/11172353\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\">By Scott Larson, The Starphoenix<\/a> June 27, 2015 8:39 AM<\/p>\n<p>Frank DeGroat was behind the plate for the U.S. in their 7-0 defeat of Mexico in their opening game Friday at the Men&#8217;s World Softball Championship in Saskatoon.<br \/>\nPhotograph by: Greg Pender, The Starphoenix , The Starphoenix<\/p>\n<p>As Frank DeGroat Jr. was preparing for the 2015 WBSC Men&#8217;s World Softball Championship he expected to be primarily used as designated hitter for the United States.<\/p>\n<p>But an injury to the team&#8217;s starting catcher has meant the 40-year-old veteran is going to carry the load behind the plate as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why you come into this tournament with several catchers so that if one of your catchers get injured, someone can step in,&#8221; said DeGroat, who was behind the plate for the U.S. in their 7-0 defeat of Mexico in their opening game Friday.<\/p>\n<p>His 10 years of play on the national team has helped DeGroat to transition into being an everyday player on the field.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"pullquote\"> &#8220;I&#8217;m in the gym six times a week, so I&#8217;m definitely in shape for it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But it&#8217;s the mental preparation that changes. Now you go from the DH role to actually take the field and control what goes on on the field.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestarphoenix.com\/sports\/Veteran+catcher+sees+role+expanded+injury\/11172353\/story.html\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to read the complete article at the Star Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DeGroat calls shots as U.S. wins By Scott Larson, The Starphoenix June 27, 2015 8:39 AM Frank DeGroat was behind the plate for the U.S. in their 7-0 defeat of Mexico in their opening game Friday at the Men&#8217;s World Softball Championship in Saskatoon. Photograph by: Greg Pender, The Starphoenix , The Starphoenix As Frank [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[3,28,19,61,82],"tags":[71],"class_list":{"0":"post-27706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-asa","7":"category-featured","8":"category-players","9":"category-usa-softball","10":"category-wbsc","11":"tag-isfmens2015","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27706","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=27706"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27707,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27706\/revisions\/27707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}