On the second day of the Hanshin professional baseball team's Okinawa camp, Japan national team manager Hirokazu Ibata was the first of the 12 teams to inspect the camp, and mentioned Shota Morishita as one of his high expectations.
Morishita is training every day to master the new form.
Japan's national baseball team, ``Samurai Japan,'' is preparing for a warm-up match against the European national team next month in preparation for the ``Premier 12,'' an international tournament to be held this November.
Manager Ibata was the first of the 12 teams to visit Hanshin on the 2nd and exchanged words with manager Akifu Okada for about 45 minutes. Afterwards, in an interview with the press, he listed Morishita, who is in his second year, as one of the players he has high expectations for.
Coach Ibata said, ``Even in last fall's game, he hit a lot of hits that changed the atmosphere of the team with just one swing.He is definitely a player we need in short-term battles.''
Morishita made a big contribution to Japan's No. 1 title for the first time in 38 years with his competitive batting last season.
This year, he is working on improving his form with the aim of improving his batting average, which was .237 last season, and increasing the number of home runs. He envisions using his entire body to catch the ball, rather than his fingers, to increase his certainty.
He batted with particular attention to the rotation of his upper body and chest, and although he took 59 swings today and did not hit any balls that reached the outfield stands, he repeatedly hit sharp liner hits.
Morishita talked about his aspirations, saying, ``I think I can hit close to 30% if I get into the ideal shape.I want to be a player who can hit career highs every year, so it's important to keep building up.I want to do my best to get good results in actual matches.'' Did.
Regarding his thoughts on the Japanese national team, he said, ``He wants to become a world-class player, so he wants to focus on the national team.''