Special feature: 2024 college baseball draft candidates
Kotaro Kawanami
2024/09/24
(Last update: 2024/09/24)
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#2024 College Baseball Draft Candidates
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#Aomori University
Aomori University’s Tonosaki has an unusual track record, having left the team for two years (photo by Kotaro Kawanami)
Aomori University has produced a player selected in the development draft for two consecutive years, and this year pitcher Shin Sasozaki (4th year, Aomori Yamada) is planning to submit his application to go professional. He is 182cm tall and weighs 80kg, and is a right-handed pitcher whose weapons are a fastball that reaches a maximum speed of 150kph and a sharp forkball. He has an unusual career history, having quit the baseball club in the spring of his first year, only to rejoin in the spring of his third year. What caused the “blank two years” and how did he spend them?
[Featured]2024 college baseball draft candidates
He was captain of his high school team, but was plagued by injuries and “failed to give his all.”
Ozaki was born in Shichinohe, Aomori Prefecture. He started playing baseball in the second grade of elementary school, and after playing hardball at Aomori Yamada Junior and Senior High School, he went on to Aomori University, an affiliated school.
He served as captain at Aomori Yamada High School and won the Aomori-only tournament in the summer of his third year when Koshien was canceled due to the effects of COVID-19. Due to a series of shoulder and elbow injuries, he was unable to perform as well as he had hoped as a pitcher, which was supposed to be his “main job,” and he mainly played in games as a fielder.
“When I was in high school, I enjoyed playing baseball, but I didn’t feel like I was doing it to the fullest. Looking back, I think I should have taken baseball more seriously.” He had always wanted to become a professional, but he thought, “It’s 100% impossible for me right now. I’m not in a position to say in front of other people that I want to become a professional,” so he decided to go to college.
High school baseball was not enough, so he went on to college to aim to become a professional (Photo courtesy of Aomori University Baseball Club)
To attend baseball school at Aomori University’s Tokyo campus
The standard course of action is to gradually hone your skills over four years with the aim of going professional after graduating from university. However, in mid-April, just after joining the team, Ogurazaki made the decision to “quit.” He looks back on that time as follows:
“I had the impression that in college baseball, some players have the potential to grow, but many players decay. I didn’t get along with the pitching coach at the time, and I thought that if I continued like this, I would get injured again and I would decay too.”
When he decided to quit the team, the first thing that came to mind was the baseball school in Tokyo that he had attended after retiring from high school baseball. In order to attend the school, he transferred to Aomori University’s Tokyo campus along with three other teammates who had quit the team at the same time.
Aomori University opened a new Tokyo campus in 2019. According to regulations by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, at the campuses of regional universities located within the 23 wards of Tokyo, “general students (Japanese) are limited to a maximum of two years of enrollment,” so Japanese students are allowed to enroll for a maximum of two years during their first and second years (international students and working students can enroll for four years). To develop his talents with a unique approach, Ogurasaki decided to take advantage of this system.
He quit the team shortly after joining, deciding to hone his skills in Tokyo (Photo courtesy of Aomori University Baseball Club)
Two years of striving to improve reproducibility and create a “good ball”
In Tokyo, he attended a baseball school for about half a year, and then solidified his foundation at another training facility. “No matter how much I practice baseball techniques, if I don’t have a body that can reproduce them, I’ll get injured again.” He learned conditioning methods to improve reproducibility, and got the hang of “using my body the way I want to use it.”
However, he was far from playing in a real game for a long time. At first, he had his sights set on playing for a club team, but time constraints made that impossible. He attended classes, played catch with former teammates on the university grounds, and worked hard at training and part-time work. “At that time, I had a vague desire to become a professional baseball player. Rather than that, I was more interested in self-satisfaction and wanted to pitch well,” he recalls.
After returning to Aomori in the spring of his third year, he was planning to look for an opportunity to play in a club team again. However, he suddenly decided to “rejoin” the baseball team. After hearing about his challenge in Tokyo, the then president of Aomori Yamada Gakuen arranged for him to meet with the baseball team’s coach, Tadakichi Miura, and was allowed to return, which was an unusual move.
Last year, thanks to the training, he was able to throw a fastball in the high 140 km range, but he was not included in the official game squad. Nevertheless, this spring, as a fourth-year student, he made his league debut against Fuji University, pitching well, with no hits and no runs in two innings. In the fall, he pitched in four games, including his first start, for a total of eight innings, striking out nine batters and allowing two runs, demonstrating his strengths. In the game against Hachinohe Gakuin University, he was measured at 150 km/h, his fastest speed ever, by the team’s speed gun.
He made his league debut in the spring of his fourth year, and in the fall recorded his fastest speed of 150 km/h (Photo courtesy of Aomori University Baseball Club)
Being drafted is the first step to giving back
“When I rejoined the team, the first thing I felt was, ‘I’ve taken a long detour.’ No matter how good a pitch I’m happy with, even if I throw a 150 km/h pitch, if I’m going to get hit, it’s better to throw a 140 km/h pitch that I can keep under control. I was able to realize what I was lacking, so I’m glad I was able to rejoin the team.”
He has trained not only the speed of his pitches, but also the quality of his breaking balls, fielding, covering and other detailed techniques from scratch, and has acquired the art of “holding back.” “Let’s stop doing what we want when we want, and value the movement of the team and the organization,” he says, taking the initiative in preparing the ground and preparing for practice, and actively encouraging his teammates.
“I have a two-year hiatus, so I have to work harder than anyone else. I have to pitch in a way that is relevant to the game, not just for my own satisfaction. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to pitch, and the other members won’t be satisfied,” said Ozaki. Rejoining the team was an opportunity for him to reexamine his approach to baseball.
“I’ve had a two-year break, so I have to work harder than anyone else.” (Photo by Kotaro Kawanami)
On the other hand, he doesn’t regret his decision to quit the team. As a result, he never once gave up during his four years at university. It was because he took the long way around that he was able to grow greatly both as a baseball player and as a person.
“Even after graduating, I will never forget the chairman of Aomori Yamada Gakuen, the coach of the Aomori University baseball team, and the other members who allowed me to rejoin the team, and I will never forget them, and I have nothing but gratitude,” said Usagi. With the draft approaching in about a month, he said, “As long as I’m playing baseball, I want to go pro. I’ll keep improving my condition until the very end, and I’m going to submit my application to go pro with the intention of taking on the challenge.” Having his name called in the draft should be the first step in giving back.
2024-09-24 11:33:24