MORIOKA – Hard-throwing high school pitcher Roki Sasaki, who is being heavily scouted by major league clubs, stayed on the bench to avoid injury as his team was eliminated from contention for a prestigious national title on Thursday.
Sasaki, who threw a pitch at 160 kph on Sunday in the fourth round of Iwate Prefecture’s summer tournament and was clocked at 163 kph in April, did not pitch in the prefectural final, Ofunato High School’s 12-2 loss to Hanamaki Higashi High School.
“It was the manager’s decision, so I don’t think it can be helped,” Sasaki said. “It’s only natural for those involved in high school ball to want to play. I wanted to pitch.”
Hanamaki Higashi, where Los Angeles Angels player Shohei Ohtani and Seattle Mariners pitcher Yusei Kikuchi both pitched, will now represent Iwate Prefecture at Koshien Stadium in the upcoming National High School Baseball Tournament.
After throwing 194 pitches on Sunday, Sasaki tossed another 129 in Ofunato’s semifinal victory. Sasaki’s absence in the final was likely a disappointment to fans accustomed to high school ace pitchers taking the mound on consecutive days with little regard to the risk of injury.
However, Sasaki’s manager, Yohei Kokubo, said the decision to rest his ace was to keep the pitcher healthy.
“He may have been fit to throw today, but it was my decision,” Kokubo told reporters after the game. “The reason was to prevent injury.”
Kokubo, who also held the youngster out of Monday’s quarterfinal game, was asked whether winning was less important than Sasaki’s future.
“That’s absolutely not the case,” Kokubo said. “Our goal is to win, regardless of whether Sasaki pitches or not.”
The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, who developed Ohtani, have declared that the right-handed Sasaki will be their first pick in NPB’s amateur draft this autumn.
A source with one major league club told Kyodo News this spring it had hoped to sign Sasaki at the end of this year. However, that would have required the pitcher to drop out of the summer tournament, and the American team was told that the youngster was unwilling to do so.
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