"I think it was good that I was able to pitch in a first-team game in my first year, and although the results weren't that great, I was able to throw my own pitch, so I think that was good."

Lotte's Rikima Ichijo summed up his first professional season like this.

Ichijo started spring training with the Miyakonojo team, but also pitched in first-team matches, including a practice match against Lotte Korea on February 28 and the 2025 Spring Miyazaki Baseball Games against Softbank Hawks on March 2. "I got the impression that if I try to throw the ball in or don't put much power into it, the ball will be taken away. I think that was a good thing."

In a practice game against Lotte Korea, the fourth pitch thrown by Na Seung-yeop from 3 balls was carried to the light stands by the leader Na fastball Seung-yeop, but fork, who took Yoo Kang-nam from 2 balls and 2 strike without a struck out runner, fell well from the strike zone to the ball zone.

Although he started the season with the second team, he made regular season debut on March 21st against Seibu Lions Lions' second team, with 10 of his 12 pitches in the first inning being fastball and power pitches. When asked why he threw so many fastball in his first appearance, he said, "I think my biggest challenge is fastball, so if my fastball doesn't work, fork won't work either. I'm placing the most emphasis on my straight fastball."

At the announcement of new players last December, he said, "The point to pay attention to is the fork ball. I think the fork ball, which has a large drop-off, is my specialty, so I want to take struck out with a bang. fork I want to take a lot of fork pitches." As he enthusiastically stated, "I want people to see that." As a pro, he has pitched fastball and in 12 games and 10 1/3 innings in the farm, and his strike out rate is 15.06, higher than inning. strike out rate is an astounding 13.06, and he was registered with the first-team roster on July 15.

In the Softbank Hawks game on the same day, he made his professional debut in the 5th inning of 2-5. He swung Akira Nakamura with 1 ball and 2 strike fork without runner, and recorded struck out his first professional strike out.

He hurt his left leg the day after pitching and was removed from the first-team roster on the 17th. After that, he did not pitch in regular season for the first or second teams, but he pitched in six games in the Miyazaki Phoenix League.

I wonder if there was an image of him being closer in the first team if he had been able to pitch without injury while he took a lot of struck out from the farm, mainly fastball and fork.

"I don't have an image in mind, but I did want to throw more."

"I don't have a numerical image in mind, but I hope to pitch more in the first team," he said, expressing his determination for his second year as a professional. He wants to pitch in as many games as possible in the first team next season.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita