Lotte's sixth-round draft pick, Ryoju Okamura (Tomishima High School), has played in 62 games in the farm system, batting .265 with 4 Home Run and 11 RBI. Defensively, he has also played in the most games as catcher on the team, appearing in 57 games and starting behind starting line-up plate in a team-high 46 games. He is gaining practical experience both offensively and defensively in the farm system.
In an interview on May 8, Okamura revealed that he prioritizes defense over batting, stating, “I don’t really worry too much about batting—though I do have to bat, of course—but my top priority is to pitcher and get the score to zero closer. Once that’s taken care of, then I can focus on batting.”
In the game against Oisix on July 1st, he said, "My throwing is not good, so I've been practicing with the coach. I was able to do in the game what I've been practicing, so I think that was good," and he caught two stolen base in that game.
defense "As I’ve been focusing on this, I’d say my pitch selection and game calling have improved—or rather, I’m being more conscious of them, which is a good thing—but passed ball has been happening a bit too often lately. I need to pay more attention to that. Also, while I did get two outs on throws, my stop rate is still only in the 20% range.(stolen base Stopping rate) Since my goal is 30 percent, I want to work on making more plays from here on out,” he said, outlining his challenges. Currently, stolen base his stopping rate stands at .275, leading the Farm League East Division, and among the three divisions, it is the second-highest figure after the .481 recorded by Shinnosuke Yamase The Giants of the Central Division.
While defense is impressive, he's also catcher can hit, so expectations are high for his batting as well. In a game against Rakuten Eagles 's minor league team on May 17th, in the 6th inning with no outs and no runner on base, he came up to bat for the third time and launched a fastball, the fifth pitch thrown by Sota Fujiwara Sota with a 2-ball, 2-strike, into the right field stands for a home run. Despite his small stature of 172 cm tall and 77 kg, he has the power to hit Home Run to the opposite field.
In the Chunichi farm team game held on May 26 in Zozo Marine Stadium, in his first at-bat with two outs and no runner in the second inning with a 1-2 scoreline, Takahiro Matsuba threw a 135 km/h fastball from a 1-ball, 2-strike Zozo Marine Stadium the middle of the left field stands, hitting his first Home Run in the middle of the left field stands. In his third at-bat with runners on first and second and one out, Kosuke Takahashi th slider rew the second pitch from 1st strike to left field for a game-winning two-run doble.
In the game against Hayate on June 19th, in the third inning with the score 1-0 and no outs and no runner on base, he came to bat for the first time and laid down a safety bunt down third base line on the first pitch, a 121 km/ change-up thrown by Nomura Yuki. He got on base when pitcher fumbled the ball.
Looking at the farm team's monthly batting averages, he had a batting average of .240 in March and April, .222 in May, .281 in June, and a monthly batting average of .556 so far in July, and a batting average of .341 since June, showing improvement in his hitting as well.
"First, my goal is to closer the opposing team scoreless in defense, and in batting, I want to focus on executing my own swing properly." In order to become a player who will carry The Marines on his shoulders in the future, he is currently working on his weaknesses in the farm team, climbing the ladder one step at a time.
Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita
