AWA, Tokushima -- A third-year girl from a high school in Awa, Tokushima Prefecture, will throw the ceremonial first pitch at the prefecture's high school baseball tournament that begins July 11. The tournament will be held as an alternative to the National High School Baseball Championship and preceding prefectural primary tourneys, which were canceled due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
Ririka Yoshimoto, 17, of Tokushima Prefectural Awa High School, was chosen to make the ceremonial pitch to mark the start of the prefectural event. She is the only female high school baseball club member in the prefecture.
Female members are not allowed to participate in official high school baseball club games, so Yoshimioto has felt frustrated.
This year, her male teammates also lost their opportunity to play in the primary tourney, which is the path to the national championship played at Koshien Stadium, because of the virus ordeal.
She thought her male counterparts would be more disappointed. "Thinking about the various feelings I've had throughout my three years of high school, I want to throw the pitch bravely," she said.
Influenced by her father and elder brother when she was a third grader in elementary school, Yoshimoto began playing baseball. After she enrolled in high school, she joined a basketball club as she felt a difference in physical power with male students.
But months later, she saw some male baseball club members chasing a white ball, and felt "After all, I'm most excited about baseball."
Female school club members are not allowed to participate in official games under a rule of the Japan High School Baseball Federation.
But Yoshimoto asked Shinichi Narukawa, head coach of the school's baseball club, to let her join, telling him, "I'll finish it, no matter what."
In club practices, she completed the same training schedules as the male members. When she felt her footwork as a second base player was not good enough, she searched for ways to increase explosive power.
It also became a daily routine for her to repeat sprints alone after club practice with all members ended.
Her desire to play in games has risen. In summer last year, she described the distress in an essay she was instructed to write during summer recess. "The anguish from being unable to receive a numbered uniform was beyond my imagination," she wrote.
Narukawa conveyed Yoshimoto's enthusiasm and capabilities at a conference for head coaches of high school baseball clubs in the prefecture. As a result, in November, it was decided that Yoshimoto would be allowed to play in practice games if head coaches of opposing clubs agreed.
However, in March this year, when the ban on her participation in inter-school games was soon to be lifted, schools were closed due to the virus.
Yoshimoto was devastated as opportunities to try her baseball skills were lost.
In late May, when her school baseball club resumed practice, the school received notice that an alternative prefectural event will be held, and Yoshimoto was chosen to throw the ceremonial first pitch.
It was said that officials of the prefectural baseball federation also voiced concern about Yoshimoto. They enthusiastically wanted to give her an opportunity in which she can stand in the spotlight.
"I think I can say that my presence was finally recognized," Yoshimoto said.
In her school club's first practice game this year, which was held on June 6, Yoshimoto played in the game in its final innings and demonstrated high-spirited play.
Upon graduating from high school, Yoshimoto wants to become a firefighter and follow in her father and brother's footsteps.
"I feel grateful that I can play baseball, which I will love until the last minute. I want to make this summer a time when I can feel that I have done everything I can," she said.
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