The KFC American Challenge Series, which will be held in conjunction with the KFC World Cup of Softball, was developed by the ASA to help expose the men’s fast pitch game to fans who attend the World Cup and to give the USA Men’s National Team an opportunity to play on American soil. This will be the first time an International Softball Federation (ISF) men’s fast pitch event has been hosted in the U.S. in more than a decade. The last event held in the U.S. was the 1996 ISF Men’s World Championship in Midland, Mich.

“We are very excited to be hosting the inaugural KFC American Challenge Series in Oklahoma City this summer,” said Radigonda. “This is a very unique opportunity for softball fans to get to see both their national teams play in one location. Men’s fast pitch is a very exciting sport to watch and I have no doubt fans are going to be treated to some great action.”

The players selected to represent the United States this season as part of the 2007 USA Softball Men’s National Team are:

Gregg Cascaes (Apple Valley, Minn.)
Frank DeGroat, Jr. (Ringwood, N.J.)
Chris DeLarwelle (Appleton, Wis.)
Nate Devine (Merced, Calif.)
Lucas Goring (St. Paul, Minn.)
B.J. Hunhoff (Harrisburg, S.D.)
Chris Hunt (Whittier, Calif.)
Tim Hunt (La Habra, Calif.)
Adam LaLonde (Kentwood, Mich.)
Terry Luster (Bunceton, Mo.)
Chris Miljavac (St. Joseph, Mo.)
Blake Miller (Albany, Ga.)
Daryn Miller (Creve Coeur, IL)
Omar Moraga (Tucson, Ariz.)
Matt Palazzo (Des Moines, Iowa)
Philip Perkins (St. Michaels, Ariz.)
Travis Price (Santa Ana, Calif.)
Cody Thomson (Auburn, Wyo.)

The 2007 USA Softball Men’s National Team will be coached by Head Coach Peter Turner and Assistant Coaches Thad Brown and Avon Meacham.

About ASA

The Amateur Softball Association, founded in 1933, is the National Governing Body of softball in the United States and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The ASA has become one of the nation’s largest sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 84 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 240,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than three million. For more information on the ASA, visit www.asasoftball.com.

About USA Softball

USA Softball is the brand created, operated and owned by the ASA that links the USA Men’s, Women’s, Junior Boys’ and Junior Girls’ National Team programs together. USA Softball is responsible for training, equipping and promoting these four National Teams to compete in international and domestic competitions. The USA Softball Women’s National Team is one of the only two women’s sports involved in the Olympic movement to capture three consecutive gold medals at the Olympic Games since 1996. The U.S. women have also won eight World Championship titles including the last six consecutive. For more information about USA Softball, please visit www.usasoftball.com