◆Exhibition game: Softbank Hawks 5-1 Chunichi (March 17, Mizuho PayPay Dome)

Softbank Hawks manager Hiroki Kokubo gave Ihine a pep talk.

In the 7th inning, Yanagimachi led off with a single up the middle. Ihine was sent to take his place, and Yamakawa connected with a single to left to put runners on first and second. Kurihara followed with a fly ball up the middle, and Ihine touched up at second runner. center fielder The first batter, Ihine, was one or two steps ahead of the batter in position, but he started without hesitation and slid in headfirst.

Immediately afterwards, Masaki hit a three-run homer, giving the team the lead. Ihine said, "I wasn't completely certain, but I was running with a feeling that I could do it," accelerating the momentum with his aggressive base running. The 2022 first-round draft pick showed a courageous attitude, saying, "There are a lot of amazing players, so I'll just do my best," and manager Kokubo also praised him, saying, "That's what's expected of him."

Still, the commander said, "Last time in Yokohama, when we had a foreigner pitcher, he couldn't get off to a good start on four pitches, and he ended up out. We were talking about the fact that if it took four pitches to get an out there, we would be talking about whether Ogata would have made it or not. We would talk about whether Ogata would have made it or not." He looked back on the game against DeNA (Yokohama) on March 15, when Luiz couldn't get off to a good start. He was not very experienced, but he was still fighting for that slot. I think he shouldn't be satisfied with that touch-up," he added, with high hopes for the future.