Dora1 Kohshiki’s former teacher in college changed him into a man who can win in the pros.

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, who won their first interleague game, will have their first draft pick, rookie left-hander Tatsuru Kosei (22), start against Seibu in Yamagata on June 28. His matchup with Seibu’s ace Tatsuya Imai (26) is sure to draw a lot of attention.

Kosaikan was promoted to the first team in May, and in his second professional game on June 8 against Chunichi, he pitched six innings and allowed two runs while stranding runners in scoring position from start to finish. After his first professional win, he raised his hands modestly in the Bantelein Dome. His former coach, Hirohisa Saito, 58, who coached him when he was at Toin University of Yokohama, watched his pupil on TV at every game.

When I first saw him, he was really thin, so I got the impression that he had grown a lot. The first time I saw Kosaika pitch in a game was in May of his junior year of high school. I had always had an image that tall left-handed pitchers have poor control, but Kosae was about 182 cm tall, but he was dexterous with his fingers, could handle a variety of breaking pitches, and got strikes. At the time, I didn’t think he could become a professional pitcher, but I felt he could help the team (Toin University of Yokohama).

At the time, he weighed in at 50 kg, about 20 kg lighter than now. Kosaika’s high school baseball career came to an easy end later in the summer when he lost a cold game to prefectural Sagamihara High School in the third round of the Kanagawa Tournament.

I never heard directly from him, but I heard that he wanted to become a hotelier after graduating from high school. He didn’t have the confidence to continue playing baseball, but thanks to our style of practice, which emphasizes independence and individuality while respecting the discipline that must be maintained within the team, we won 17 league championships, so he seemed to like this style.

Seeing how Kosaika practiced, I was convinced that he wanted to become a hotelier. Even though he works hard, his inner passion does not show. There was a part of me that dubbed the modest Kosaika as a profession that takes a step back and puts a lot of thought into making customers feel good about their stay.

Before Kosaika, coach Saito, who produced six professional players from Toin University of Yokohama, felt that pitcher Kosaika had something extraordinary about him. The spin on his pitches was so effective that they did not lose speed as they approached home base.

He said, “The art of throwing a ball of this quality cannot be taught. In high school, I wasn’t invited by the pros or had any success, so it’s no wonder I lacked confidence. However, I had a feeling that I could become a winning pitcher at our school and even in the workforce, so for a while after Kosaikai entered the school, I kept telling him, ‘You are a much better pitcher than you think you are.

Kosaikan, who commuted from his home in Kanagawa Prefecture, focused on weight training, which he did not do much while at Shonan Gakuin High School, and as his body became heavier, his pitch speed also increased. As his body became heavier, his pitching speed increased. Between practices, Furusawa could be seen eating onigiri (rice balls) that he had brought from home. The first turning point came in his sophomore spring league game against Kanagawa Institute of Technology, his debut appearance for Toin University of Yokohama, when he allowed a no-hit no-run until the second death in the eighth inning.

The batter was swinging after the ball landed in the catcher’s mitt. That’s how long Kosaikai’s throw was extended near home. Even as I watched from the bench, I thought, ‘He can’t hit that. That game gave me confidence.

Another factor that makes Kosaikai’s ball look fast is his unique form, with a small take-back that makes it difficult to see where the ball is coming from. Shonan Gakuin High School invited Seiichiro Ogura, former head coach of Yokohama High School, a Koshien regular in the same prefecture, to serve as a temporary coach, and he taught Furuasa to aim for the same position as Yoshihisa Naruse (now player and head coach of the Tochigi Golden Braves), a Yokohama High School alumnus who played for the Lotte and Yakult teams. Even after entering college, Kosaika repeatedly repeated the form of throwing with a net less than 1 m wide, slightly wider than his body, so that his arm would not hit the net.