{"id":6426,"date":"2010-12-20T13:21:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-20T21:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=6426"},"modified":"2010-12-20T13:29:33","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T21:29:33","slug":"us-pitcher-gets-white-sox-nod","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=6426","title":{"rendered":"US pitcher gets White Sox nod"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Click logo for original news story)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Jennifer Feret (click photo for original news story)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

. Softball New Zealand have given the White Sox the green light to play a visiting American pitcher in a trans-Tasman test series in Perth next month.<\/p>\n

Jennifer Feret, who is pitching for Auckland club Western Magpies, will join the White Sox for the third round of the Gilley’s Shield inter-state competition and stay on for the three-test series.<\/p>\n

White Sox coach Naomi Shaw said she had sought permission from the SNZ board to play Feret because ace pitcher Megan Farrell is unavailable for the last round of the Gilley’s Shield though she will arrive in Perth in time for the test matches.<\/p>\n

“I saw Jennifer play in Auckland and I was very impressed with her. She’s got quite a fast rise ball and she’s very keen to play for us,” Shaw said. “I asked for a dispensation to play her because I didn’t want to throw our young pitchers into six games of high-intensity softball. You’re talking about 16 and 17-year-olds.”<\/p>\n

The White Sox will also be without first-choice catcher Mel Gettins and shortstop Katrina Stockford for the Perth trip.<\/p>\n

Shaw said Gettins, a Hawke’s Bay product now on a college softball scholarship in the United States, had formed an excellent battery with Farrell in last weekend’s Gilley’s Shield second-round tournament in Melbourne. Stockford had also been “a class act at shortstop” in the first two rounds.<\/p>\n

Wellington outfielder Brooke Cutting comes into the squad for the first time this season and Shaw is set to give young Auckland catcher Rebecca Hicks \u2013 whose brother Matt is in the Black Sox training squad \u2013 her international debut.<\/p>\n

The White Sox returned yesterday morning from Melbourne where Shaw said the New Zealanders were “the talk of the tournament after our improvement from week one against quality teams of a standard we don’t see in New Zealand”.<\/p>\n

The White Sox, who “averaged seven or eight hits a game”, won three of their five games and were leading Australian state champions Western Australia 4-1 in the third inning when heavy rain forced the game to be abandoned on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The White Sox beat the ACT Diamonds 8-3, the Victoria Titans 4-2 and the South Australia Starz 6-3 but lost 4-5 to the Queensland Heat after leading by four runs and 1-6 to the New South Wales Firestars.<\/p>\n

They won just one game in the first round and are now in fifth place in the seven-team competition.<\/p>\n

Shaw was upbeat about the promise displayed by her younger players, most of whom are still eligible for the Junior White Sox squad for next December’s under-19 world championships in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

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Auckland outfielder Kingsley Avery, 16, made her New Zealand debut and collected four safe hits.<\/p>\n

“She’s still eligible for the junior worlds in 2013, that’s how young she is,” Shaw said. “She had an outstanding weekend, she performed well in the field, she got hits and she stole two bases.<\/p>\n

She’s a really exciting prospect.”<\/p>\n

Hutt Valley teenagers Dinah Luke (second base) and Yvonne Burgess (outfield) also made their marks with the bat and in the field. Burgess pulled off a stunning catch against the Queensland Heat with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n

Shaw \u2013 seeking to rebuild the White Sox after a record-low 12th world championships placing last June \u2013 said her youngsters had “performed well beyond expectations”.<\/p>\n

She used Auckland pitchers Rita Hokianga, 17, and Beth Stavert, 16, in the loss to New South Wales but she said the loss could not be put down to them. “We got enough hits to be competitive but we left a lot of runners on base.”<\/p>\n

Shaw said Farrell, who struck out 13 batters against the South Australia Starz, was “hot all weekend”.<\/p>\n

The White Sox coach said she had been approached in Australia by several players with Kiwi parents who were interested in playing for New Zealand \u2013 but she has also lost one to the opposition.<\/p>\n

Former Cantabrian Carmelle Sorenson, who represented New Zealand at the 2006 world championships before moving to Brisbane, will make her Australian debut against New Zealand in Perth.<\/p>\n

The White Sox squad for Perth is: Pitchers: Jennifer Feret, Jordan-Leigh Koni, Rita Hokianga. Catchers: Rebecca Hicks, Alison Boys. Infielders\/outfielders: Rebecca Bromhead, Dinah Luke, Ashley Johnston, Hope Weber, Charlotte Pointon, Yvonne Burgess, Kingsley Avery, Megan Tasker, Brooke Cutting, Sina Hunkin.<\/p>\n

Pitcher Megan Farrell will play in the test series only.<\/p>\n

Unavailable: Zavana Aranga, Katrina Stockford, Mel Gettins, Tianna Areaiiti.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. Softball New Zealand have given the White Sox the green light to play a visiting American pitcher in a trans-Tasman test series in Perth next month. Jennifer Feret, who is pitching for Auckland club Western Magpies, will join the White Sox for the third round of the Gilley’s Shield inter-state competition and stay on […]<\/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":[9,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-international","7":"category-women","8":"entry","9":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426","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=6426"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6431,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions\/6431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}