[Lotte] Kyota Fujiwara stays behind for long tee, feeling a sense of crisis despite last season's good performance: "If I don't hit, I won't be able to play in the game"

Sports Hochi

2025.3.25(火) 21:19

Kyodai Kyota Fujiwara, outfielder for the Lotte Marines in his seventh year as a pro, stayed behind for about 30 minutes after the team practice at ZOZO on the 25th to do some long teeing. He swung his bat silently for about 30 minutes in front of the third base bench toward the left field pole, carefully checking the trajectory of his swing, saying, "I'm left-handed pitcher left-handed hitter, so I want to take care of the axis of the left side of my body. I want to be able to push the bat in from the inside."

Last season, he was sidelined with a fractured right kneecap before the start of the season. Although he ended up playing in 74 games and had a good batting average of .290, he was late in returning to the first team until June, so he has strong feelings about this season. In the exhibition game against The Giants on the 22nd (Tokyo Dome), he hit inside-the-park home run, but he said, "I'm in normal condition. There are three outfielder, (Oka) Taikai, Takabe, and Nishikawa. If I don't hit, I won't be able to play in the game." Even so, he calmly looked down at his feet and said, "I want to prepare so that I won't have any regrets. I want to be able to walk Walk and do the normal things defense and base base running."

Hitting coach Kurihara, who watched the long tee, focused on the distance to the moment of impact and spoke of the challenges he needs to overcome in order to make further progress, saying, "I want you to increase the distance the bat accelerates and make good use of the flex."

The team will take on last year's league champion, Softbank in the opening game on the 28th at the Mizuho PayPay Stadium. On this day, during night practice, each player worked up a sweat with a light menu of pitcher-catcher coordination and free batting.