Roki Sasaki, second from left, stands in tears and anguish with his fellow Ofunato High School teammates after losing in the final of the Iwate prefectural tournament on July 25. (Shigetaka Kodama)

A high school baseball manager created a controversy for sitting a top pitching prospect who threw more than 120 pitches the day before rather than risk injury in the prefectural final and a chance for the national tournament.

Roki Sasaki, whose fastball was clocked as even faster than Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels, could only watch on July 25 as his team, Ofunato High School, lost 12-2 to Hanamaki Higashi High School.

Hanamaki, Ohtani's alma mater as well as Yusei Kikuchi, who now pitches for the Seattle Mariners, qualified for the national high school baseball tournament to be held in August at venerable Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.

After the game, the 190-centimeter-tall Sasaki was asked about not playing in the final of the Iwate prefectural tournament.

"There was nothing I could do because that was the manager's decision," he said after about 10 seconds of silence.

His manager, Yohei Kokubo, 32, said he decided to sit his star pitcher because he felt the possibility of injury was the highest over the three years he had known him.

"He did not complain of pain anywhere, but I made the decision in order to prevent injury," Kokubo said.

The previous day, Sasaki threw 129 pitches as Ofunato won its semifinal game.

Sasaki attracted the attention of pro scouts when he hit 163 kph on the radar gun during a training session in April for the national team made up of high school players.

During his high school career, the hardest Ohtani threw was 160 kph.

Opinion was widely divided in baseball circles over whether Kokubo made the right move in not throwing Sasaki back on the mound.

Daisuke Matsuzaka, who now pitches for the Chunichi Dragons after playing in the major leagues for the Boston Red Sox, knows first hand about the wear and tear on high school pitchers.

In the quarterfinal game at the 1998 national high school baseball tournament, Matsuzaka pitched 17 innings.

Asked about Kokubo's decision, Matsuzaka said it was a difficult one because "he wanted to take the team to Koshien, but at the same time he did not want to damage the treasure known as Sasaki."

Matsuzaka said he would have liked to have seen how Sasaki would have done at Koshien.

Meanwhile, Motonori Watanabe, Matsuzaka's manager at Yokohama High School, said he would have no qualms about starting Sasaki in the prefectural final.

"After asking (Sasaki) what he wanted to do, I believe the essence of high school baseball is to have him go as far as he could," Watanabe said.

But Hiroyuki Oya, an international scout for the Kansas City Royals, disagreed.

He said it was inconceivable for any high school starting pitcher in the United States to pitch on consecutive days.

Masayuki Tamaki, who has written extensively about baseball and other sports, said, "Japanese fans should not feel impressed over seeing any pitcher continuing to pitch until they hurt their shoulder."

Kozo Furushima, an orthopedic surgeon at Keiyukai hospital in Gunma Prefecture, has worked on elbow and shoulder injuries of baseball pitchers.

"I feel it was a wise decision that thought about (Sasaki's) future," Furushima said. "Managers at other schools should follow this example. Winning should not be everything, and injuries can occur if pitchers do not get adequate rest."

Even though Sasaki sat out the final, he still racked up impressive numbers for a pitcher. He pitched a total of 29 innings over four games, recorded 51 strikeouts and gave up only two runs. But he ended up throwing 435 pitches, the fastest of which was recorded at 160 kph.