Nippon-Ham professional baseball team is holding a camp in Okinawa Prefecture, where they played a red-and-white game for two consecutive days, and Shun Mizutani, who was drafted from Softbank as an active player, hit a home run and appealed to manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo.
At the Nippon Ham camp held in Nago City, Okinawa Prefecture, the Red and White Match was held on the 4th day as well.
In the Red and White match, Mizutani, who is in his sixth year as a professional player and transferred from Softbank in the active draft held last December, participated as the number 5 right fielder for the White team.
Mizutani is a second-team starter at camp, but in his first at-bat against the Red and White, he caught a fastball from pitcher Kenya Suzuki, who won six games last season, and hit a solo home run to right-center field.
After getting on base with a walk in his second at-bat, he decided to steal a base, followed by an infield hit in his third at-bat, showing results in all three at-bats to appeal to Manager Shinjo.
Mizutani is a right-handed batter who has long-hitting power that takes advantage of his physique, which is 1 meter 93 cm tall and weighs 99 kg. He has not played in any official games in his five years with Softbank, and is aiming to join the first team with Nippon-Ham. .
Mizutani said, ``When I came to Nippon-Ham, I felt like I was starting over from scratch, so I would like to appeal and be called up to the first team.''
Manager Shinjo praised the team, saying, ``When I saw the way he pushed when he hit the home run, I thought he had power.''