{"id":31301,"date":"2017-07-22T10:37:32","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T17:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=31301"},"modified":"2017-07-22T10:37:32","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T17:37:32","slug":"nik-hayes-world-championship-softball-pitcher-and-lpg-deliverer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=31301","title":{"rendered":"Nik Hayes: World championship softball pitcher and LPG deliverer"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Stuff.co.nz<\/a>
\nBy NICHOLAS BOYACK<\/em><\/p>\n

Pitcher Nik Hayes came of age as a closer in the Black Sox’s world championship win. When not playing softball, he delivers LPG.<\/p>\n

Nik Hayes was one of the heroes for the Black Sox in their come-from-behind 6-4 win over Australia to win their seventh world title.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday he arrived home to the Hutt Valley after a 22-hour flight in cattle class from Canada. On Monday it is back to work, delivering LPG.<\/p>\n

It is a situation that applies to all the players in a team that, in terms of success (seven world championships), has a better record than the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

The challenge facing softball is how to exploit that success.<\/p>\n

Softball New Zealand (SNZ) chief executive Tony Giles has worked hard over the last three years transforming the organisation.<\/p>\n

Black Sox head coach and Hutt Valley legend Mark Sorenson helped the team claim its seventh world title.<\/p>\n

To him the challenge is not about exploiting the win but building on the sport’s momentum.<\/p>\n

The team receives $250,000 from High Performance New Zealand and he said that was a solid start. There was a good sponsorship arrangement in place with Golden Homes and the relationship with Sky TV was growing.<\/p>\n

With Mark Sorenson in charge, the Black Sox had undergone a transformation in style and athleticism.<\/p>\n

The team no longer relied on brute strength to smash home runs but instead built pressure by looking to score at every opportunity.<\/p>\n

Giles said improved fitness from better nutrition and preparation had also lifted the Black Sox, which was good for the image of the sport.<\/p>\n

Their on-going success had created a positive vibe around softball and Giles was confident SNZ was well placed to continue the momentum that had been created.<\/p>\n

One person who knows all about success is Rhys Casley.<\/p>\n

In the 2013 final, held on the North Shore, the then Black Sox captain delivered a three-run homer to lead his team to their sixth world title.<\/p>\n

These days he is on the board of SNZ and got a huge thrill from the win over Australia.<\/p>\n

Click here to continue reading<\/a> at Stuff.co.nz and to view photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Stuff.co.nz By NICHOLAS BOYACK Pitcher Nik Hayes came of age as a closer in the Black Sox’s world championship win. When not playing softball, he delivers LPG. Nik Hayes was one of the heroes for the Black Sox in their come-from-behind 6-4 win over Australia to win their seventh world title. On Wednesday he […]<\/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":[28,35,19],"tags":[352,401,73,758,669],"class_list":{"0":"post-31301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-featured","7":"category-oceania","8":"category-players","9":"tag-newzealandblacksox","10":"tag-softballnewzealand","11":"tag-wbsc","12":"tag-wbsc2017mensgold","13":"tag-wbscmens2017","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31301","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=31301"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31302,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31301\/revisions\/31302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}