{"id":41100,"date":"2022-10-28T09:19:39","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T16:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=41100"},"modified":"2022-11-01T13:15:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T20:15:30","slug":"wbsc-mens-softball-world-cup-one-month-to-go-new-zealand-captain-cole-evans-expecting-exhilarating-crowd-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=41100","title":{"rendered":"WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Cup &#8211; One Month To Go: New Zealand captain Cole Evans expecting \u2018exhilarating crowd\u2019 in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/news\/mens-softball-world-cup-one-month-to-go-new-zealand-captain-cole-evans-expecting-exhilarating-crowd-in-auckland\">From the WBSC<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>See story below or click link for official story at WBSC website, complete with photos and video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s Note:<\/strong>  As a member of the Ballpark Broadcasting crew, I remember watching this &#8220;kid&#8221; debut at the WBSC World in 2015 in Saskatoon Canada, at the age of 16.   His coach at the time? Someone who also hit the world stage at the age of 16, Mark Sorenson.  He impressed then, even at such a young age.  Fast forward seven years, now a veteran at age 23, Evans will be right at home, in more ways than one.  When talking about his comfort level playing in front of home fans, he&#8217;s already seen how much that can help.  The gold medal winner in 2015 ? Ah, that would be Canada, playing in front of their home fans.  One month to go until Auckland hosts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">?? &quot;I don&#39;t think it&#39;s any pressure. We&#39;re at home, playing in front of our families, our friends, that&#39;s a good environment.&quot;<br><br>? New Zealand&#39;s captain, Cole Evans, previews the Men&#39;s Softball World Cup atmosphere.<br>? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PJUQpiS8EU\">https:\/\/t.co\/PJUQpiS8EU<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MensSoftballWC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#MensSoftballWC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mEt7BIlwZy\">pic.twitter.com\/mEt7BIlwZy<\/a><\/p>&mdash; WBSC ?? (@WBSC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WBSC\/status\/1585659987971416064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 27, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>26\/10\/2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Softball supporters are some of the best in the world, especially in New Zealand,\u201d said Evans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Minutes after the New Zealand Black Sox team for the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/events\/2022-mens-softball-world-cup\/home\"><strong>WBSC Men\u2019s Softball World Cup<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;was announced on Whakaata Maori TV, team&nbsp;captain Cole Evans spoke with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.teaomaori.news\/\">teaom?ori.news<\/a>&nbsp;about the Men&#8217;s Softball World Cup to be played in&nbsp;on home soil from 26 November to 4 December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Black Sox captain rearing to get World Cup action underway | Te Ao Tapatahi\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uLkjFvwbgcw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Playing as the home team could represent additional pressure for the seven-time champions, but Evans says they will be in the best position with the support they will receive from New Zealand fans. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s any pressure. We\u2019re at home, playing in front of our families, our friends, that\u2019s a good environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was there in 2013&nbsp;[the last time the World Cup was played in Auckland] in the crowd, and it\u2019s an&nbsp;exhilarating crowd. Softball supporters are some of the best in the world, especially in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked about New Zealand&#8217;s first game against No. 5 Czech Republic, which will open the tournament on 26 November Evans said the European champions&nbsp;are a good team and will be well respected.&nbsp;\u201cGood pitching, good hitting, and they are&nbsp;above us in the world rankings so it should be a good opener.&nbsp;They\u2019ve given us a run in the last few World Cups, so I\u2019m really looking forward to it,\u201d&nbsp;he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Evans, who will be joined by his brother Rhys Evans on New Zealand\u2019s World Cup roster, was&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wbsc.org\/en\/news\/cole-evans-named-new-zealand-black-sox-captain\" target=\"_blank\">named captain of the team in June 2020<\/a><\/strong>. Since then, the Black Sox hasn\u2019t played an international game. \u201cIt was a bit of an awkward situation, to be honest. But I\u2019m really looking forward to captaining the team in that first game of the World Cup,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand will face&nbsp;Argentina, the top ranked team in the world, in Group A as well looking for revenge after losing to them during pool play in 2019.&nbsp;\u201cArgentina is a quality side, they are the defending champions. It\u2019s an awkward position for us, we normally arrive as favourites, but I think it\u2019s a good position for us coming as underdogs.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re working-class men who just get out there and battle, that\u2019s what we\u2019re really looking forward to doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Listen Cole Evans interview at The Global Game, the podcast of the WBSC.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/wbsc\/embed\/episodes\/Episode-10-Cole-Evans-joins-The-Global-Game-e1hc723\">https:\/\/anchor.fm\/wbsc\/embed\/episodes\/Episode-10-Cole-Evans-joins-The-Global-Game-e1hc723<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the WBSC See story below or click link for official story at WBSC website, complete with photos and video. Editor&#8217;s Note: As a member of the Ballpark Broadcasting crew, I remember watching this &#8220;kid&#8221; debut at the WBSC World in 2015 in Saskatoon Canada, at the age of 16. His coach at the time? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39071,"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":[28,35,23,82],"tags":[401,73,1031,1251],"class_list":{"0":"post-41100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"category-oceania","9":"category-tournaments","10":"category-wbsc","11":"tag-softballnewzealand","12":"tag-wbsc","13":"tag-wbsc2022","14":"tag-wbscamericas","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41100","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=41100"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41110,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41100\/revisions\/41110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}