Eri Yoshida made her first start of the season against the Kishu Rangers today.  Yoshida gave up one run on six hits over five innings of work and became the first female pitcher in Kansai Independent League history to record a victory.

Final line: 5 IP, 70 NP, 6 H, 2 SO, 1 BB, 1 R.

Video streaming by Ustream

Twenty-three-year-old Motoki Asato tossed a no-hitter against the Kochi Fighting Dogs at JA Bank Tokushima Stadium earlier today.  Asato faced twenty-eight batters, threw a total 124 pitches, struck out ten, and walked one.

Island League official announcement

Tokushima Indigo Socks blog post

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Score

The Kansai Independent League 06Bulls held a rally in Osaka today and unveiled their uniforms for the 2012 season.  The designer of the uniforms: Kazuyasu Suzuki (Ichiro Suzuki's brother).

Three members of the Fukui Miracle Elephants (BC League) have been suspended for using corporal punishment on a nineteen year-old teammate.  One player, a twenty-six year-old pitcher, has been suspended for six months, the other two, three months each.

According to the team, the twenty-six year-old pitcher called the nineteen year-old pitcher into his hotel room during training camp in Oi, Fukui in March 2011 to punish him for poor conduct during practices.  It was at that time that the twenty-six year-old pitcher made the 19-year-old pitcher put a bat in between his knees and then sit on the floor seiza style.  The other two players were present, but did nothing to stop the twenty-six year old pitcher.

In October 2011, the nineteen year-old's father contacted the team to inform them of what happened.  The three players were suspended, effective December 1 (no games, no team practices).  The nineteen year-old player left the team in November and filed a report with the Obama Police Department in February this year.

FWIW: the Miracle Elephants posted a notice on November 7, 2011 that nineteen year-old Shota Sugaya was leaving the team.

The Kansai Independent League (KANDOK) released the schedule for the first half of their 2012 season.

The following five teams will play seventy-seven games between March 24 and July 1.

• Hyogo Blue Sandars
• Kobe Suns
• Kishu Rangers
• 06 Bulls
• Yamato Samurai Reds

The Ehime Marndarin Pirates announced today that they agreed to terms with former Chunichi Dragon Junichi Kawahara (39).

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Career Stats

The Ehime Mandarin Pirates announced today that they signed Tasuku Hashimoto (35) to a contract.

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Career Stats

Dailiy Sports is reporting that former Hanshin Tiger Kodai Sakurai (28) may be close to signing a deal with the Kagawa Olive Guyners (Shikoku Island League plus).

Kodai attended NPB tryouts last year but did not receive any offers.  Not wanting to give up on his career (or his wish to play in the NPB again), he turned to Kagawa manager Shinji Nishida for assistance (the two are PL Gakuen graduates).

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2011 Season

The Hyogo Blue Sandars held a press conference for Eri Yoshida today (Ustream).

During the press conference, manager Yutaka Ikeuchi was asked about how he planned to use Yoshida and said he planned to ease her in by having her pitch out of the bullpen and slowly work her way up to starting.

The Kochi Fighting Dogs announced today that they hired Yasuo Hirota (62) to be a team advisor/general coach.

Hirota spent a number of years coaching in the Hanshin, Yokohama, and Yomiuri organizations after his retirement in 1988.  He was also the outfield/base-running coach for the 2006 WBC team.