Earlier this month, Shohei Ohtani was ruled out from pitching again this season.
But on Sunday, a pitcher from his high school alma mater scaled the mound at Dodger Stadium.
Yuuri Teramoto, a first-year student at Hanamaki Higashi High School, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodgers’ series finale against the San Francisco Giants. Teramoto plays on Hanamaki Higashi’s girls baseball team.
Teramoto was one of 50 high school students chosen by Iwate prefecture to visit the United States as part of an exchange program. This is the 150th anniversary of Iwate’s founding, as well as the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
Teramoto’s first pitch was caught by Iwate native Roki Sasaki, who is from the coastal town of Rikuzentakata and lost his father in the tsunami.
Teramoto is from the southern island of Kumamoto but said she was in part inspired by Ohtani to attend high school in Iwate, which is on the northern part of Japan’s mainland.
“He’s someone I admire,” Teramoto said in Japanese.
Like Ohtani, she added, “My dream in the future is to go to the United States.”
Hanamaki Higashi is also the high school alma mater of Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi and Miami Marlins prospect Rintaro Sasaki.
Teramoto said her team practices using a pitching machine donated by Ohtani.
“We used the machine every day and we’re very grateful,” she said.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
