Men’s National Team training roster announced as 18 athletes selected to represent Team USA

January 7, 2019

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2019

Men’s National Team training roster announced as 18 athletes selected to represent Team USA

CLEARWATER, Fla. — The training roster for the 2019 USA Softball Men’s National Team (MNT) has been announced today as 18 athletes have been selected following three days of Selection Trials, USA Softball announced. Selected by members of the Men's National Team Selection Committee (MNTSC), these athletes will compete in select tournaments/invitational events before the final 17-player roster for the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Men’s World Championship and the 15-player roster for the Pan American Games will be finalized.

“The players in attendance certainly made our job on the selection committee difficult,” said 2019 MNT Head Coach Gregg Leather (Staten Island, N.Y.). “There were a lot of talented players and the committee has assembled a team that gives the United States a great opportunity to capture Gold this summer at the WBSC World Championship and Pan American Games.”

Click here to see the athletes selected to the 2019 USA Softball Men's National Team training roster<https://www.teamusa.org/usa-softball/team-usa/mens-fast-pitch>

Representing the U.S. this summer will be a roster that includes 11 veteran members from the 2017 WBSC Men’s World Championship roster while 12 athletes were on the 2017 Pan American Championship roster that earned the Bronze, the first international medal for the MNT program since 2003.

Collegiately, Kevin Castillo (Long Beach, Calif.) is an Assistant Coach at Long Beach State University while Jonathan Lynch (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) is an Assistant Coach at Central Methodist University.

Announced in fall of 2018, Leather will lead the Red, White and Blue in their quest to the podium in 2019. The complete coaching staff and list of National Team events, including exhibition games, will be released at a later date.

“The strength of this team will be a strong offensive lineup, great defense and a deep pool of players available to step up to the plate when the game is on the line,” Leather continued. “Our entire pitching staff has experience in international events, so they know what to expect and how to prepare while our strong defense should keep us in any contest.”

Follow along all summer with all of the USA Softball National Teams at USASoftball.com  www.USASoftball.com

About USA Softball
USA Softball is a 501(c)(3) not-for profit organization headquartered in Oklahoma City, Okla., and is designated as the National Governing Body (NGB) of Softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. One of the nation’s largest sports organizations, USA Softball sanctions competition through a network of Local Associations, which includes all 50 states and select metro associations, and has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 150,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than 2 million. USA Softball is dedicated to providing people of all ages the opportunity to play the game they love at a variety of levels by offering recreational, league, tournament and competitive play for fast pitch, slow pitch and modified pitch. USA Softball annually conducts thousands of tournaments throughout the country including over 100 National Championships. The USA Softball umpire program is among the nation’s largest and are widely known as the best trained umpires in the game.

As the NGB for the sport of softball, USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting the six USA Softball National Teams that compete in events such as the Olympics, Pan American Games, World Championships and other international and domestic events. For more information on USA Softball, including its founding and history as the Amateur Softball Association of America (ASA), please visit, www.USASoftball.com<http://www.usasoftball.com/>.

About the World Baseball Softball Confederation
Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland -- the Olympic Capital -- the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) is the world governing body for baseball and softball. WBSC has 208 National Federation and Associate Members in 135 countries and territories across Asia, Africa, Americas, Europe and Oceania, which represent a united baseball/softball sports movement that encompasses over 65 million athletes and attracts approximately 150 million fans to stadiums worldwide annually.

The WBSC governs all international competitions involving official National Teams. The WBSC oversees the Premier12, World Baseball Classic, Baseball World Cups, Softball World Cups and Softball World Championships, as well as baseball and softball events at the Olympic Games.

For more information, visit www.wbsc.org<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001L2R1i8GAYp-XJb79BwEvX0R6cp-QP0LGNj5rpPDxqekncHj-YnyWU4AwOBYjhTDQhtqkPusxUZE0SSkChN_WE2mKFs2W3rIxfsaKzQ1A4N88k0a8DAS71C-hIkI4RpQNhRzZeTn3552THXQfS1eT8VggN1X-tHPX&c=DRQS_Ww0ovwhGxlve7nHyU9ZHgxn6sbbycm-PvCNS9wdA0ZlUQlT7g==&ch=QvrxWGntMDHcYtl4FV6kZN4z4HqtR5jMns6RHwvFz2C3uN_8pd6oNA==>, which is available six languages: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.

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