○ Lotte 2x - 1 Nippon-Ham ●
<Round 7: Zozo Marine Stadium >

"I imagined that if the ball came to me in this type of situation, I would hit it."

It was Lotte's first-round draft pick, Misho Nishikawa who put an end to the nail-biting pitcher battle.

With one out and runners on first and second with one out in the 12th inning, Nishikawa came in as a substitute hitter. "To be honest, I didn't want to get an out by messing with a strange ball before coming to bat, but when I cooled down, I remembered my batting style and swung at the first pitch, which is what I've always done, I decided to stick with it and went for it from the first pitch." He swung at the first pitch cutter, a 141-kilogram ball thrown by Takumi Yamamoto, and the ball hit a walk-off timely doble pitch that broke right down the middle.

Nishikawa made the opening day first team and hit in five consecutive games from the start of the season, but was removed from the first team roster on April 12. He was promoted again on April 29, and recorded two hit in the game against Orix on the same day, and multiple hit in the game against Softbank on May 2, but had no hit since the game against Softbank on May 3.

"I came back from hitting in the farm team and things were going well at first, but then things started to go wrong and I think that's the difference between the first and second teams in professional baseball. I had a really tough time after that, but I kept working hard every day as the ball was tossed to me, knowing that one day I would definitely be able to hit."

This was Nishikawa's second time on the podium. "The first time I stood on the podium, I thought I had made a good start, but things didn't go well from there, and I was frustrated for a long time, but I was really happy to be able to become a hero," he reflected.

"Looking back on my at-bat today, I felt like I was able to get the ball in at my own timing, so I'd like to use this hit as a springboard to be able to hit from the day after tomorrow onwards and do my best to contribute to the team," he said enthusiastically. Nishikawa and the team will be on the upswing with this hit.