A brief history:
Yoshiki was born in Takaido,Tokyo. He started becoming interested in baseball at the age of 3.
After moving to Odawara, he started to play softball for Hotoku Braves. The pitching coach, Mr Kobayashi taught him much about how to pitch . Yoshiki trained hard everyday and perfected a low, out course pitch that was very hard to hit. The Braves won two tournaments in his last year with them. He then played baseball at Johoku Junior High School. His coach from the second grade was his second inspiration, Mr.Omori used Yoshiki as a pitcher and outfielder and told him only to pitch straights as not to damage his arm. He gave alot of good advice to Yoshiki and his parents ,who knew nothing of the baseball world.He was picked up by Soyo High School , Odawara. He became a regular member in his first year. The team was strong in practice games and beat some of the top teams in the country but were not so good in the Kanagawa tournament. Yoshiki was converted to a left-handed batter in the second grade.The training was said to be the hardest in any high school in Japan!!He was asked to join Kanto Gakuin University and again played as a regular from the first grade. He played at Jingu 3 times in the national tournament and got the best 9 award twice. He came in 2nd in the batting average after his Soyo team mate Hasegawa of Yokohama Shodai U.( now of Toshiba.)
He became injured at the end of the season and only had 2 tryouts.
He was not picked up by any corporate team. He joined Wien Baseball club of Yokohama and played for Tomizu softball team in his home town of Odawara. He was persuaded to give baseball one more chance and did the tryouts for the Shikoku Island League. He passed the tests and was drafted into Tokushima Indigo Socks. A team with great character and great fans.
Hopefully this year he will improve on his batting average and help the team win the championship.