Hokkaido Nippon Ham right-hander Shohei Otani outpitched fellow second-year man Shintaro Fujinami as the Fighters defeated the Hanshin Tigers 6-5 in a preseason game on Saturday.
Otani changed speeds effectively to hold Hanshin to a run on two hits over five innings at Koshien Stadium to make a case for inclusion in the Fighters' starting rotation. Both pitchers were taken in the first round of the 2012 amateur draft and were rookie sensations last season.
The two had faced each other once before at Koshien as high school seniors in the 2012 National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament. In that game, Fujinami and Osaka Toin beat Otani's Hanamaki Higashi 9-2.