Pitcher Taikai Ito, who has been selected as a representative of Japan for the WBC = World Baseball Classic by professional baseball Nippon Ham, will be held at a campsite in Okinawa on the 9th, assuming that he will pitch at the WBC for two consecutive days. Before the practice game, we did our best pitching practice in the bullpen.
At the Nippon Ham 1st Army camp in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, a practice match was held with Korean professional baseball team Samsung on the 9th. I am planning to pitch.
Pitcher Ito is originally a starting pitcher, but at the Tokyo Olympics he contributed to winning the gold medal as a middleman.
For this reason, pitcher Ito went into the bullpen and practiced throwing with all his might on the 8th, the day before the game, with the possibility of throwing consecutively at the tournament.
Pitcher Ito used the WBC's official ball to check the changing balls such as cut balls, sliders, and fork balls, and had the batter's box on the left and right stand and threw 28 balls while being aware of the course.
In addition, pitcher Ito was pitching assuming the actual performance, such as throwing a slow curve, saying, "I can make use of other changing balls."
Regarding the practice match on the 9th, pitcher Ito said, "I don't think it's just an adjustment pitch, so I want to enter with the feeling that it's the first game and keep it clean."