From 13 o'clock on March 11th, an open match between Tohoku Rakuten Eagles and Hokkaido Nippon-Ham will be held at Shizuoka Kusanagi Stadium.

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 's Itsuki Murabayashi has a .278 batting average in three consecutive open games hit. On the 7th (Yokohama DeNA match), he hit a hit in the bottom of the second inning and contributed to the first run. Last season, Murabayashi scored 144 hit and won the most hit titles. As vigilance intensifies, can we mass-produce hit this season as well?

On the other hand, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham will pay attention to rookie Kaito Fujimori, the 5th pick in the draft. When he came on as a substitute in the first game of the Open on February 22nd, he marked infield hit in his second at-bat. In the game on the 7th (Chiba Lotte Marines match), he started as "No. 1 catcher" and recorded 1 hit 1 stolen base, and in the defense, he led the starter Tamon Asari pitcher and made the game 3 innings runs clean. I want to continue to appeal in this game as well.

Text: Aoi Nemoto