Shuichi Murata

Shuichi Murata (村田 修一) is a third baseman for the Tochigi Golden Braves of Baseball Challenge League.

Murata led the Central League in home runs in both and and is one of the few pure home run hitters in Japanese professional baseball today.

Though Murata's team secured a berth in the 80th National High School Baseball Championship held that very summer, they lost to a Katsuaki Furuki-led Toyota Otani High School in the first round.

Murata hit a total of 30 home runs during his high school career.

Realizing that he "would never defeat Matsuzaka as long as [he] remained a pitcher", decided he would become a position player upon enrolling in college.

Among Murata's teammates at the time were then-junior Kensuke Tanaka and catcher Ryuji Ohno.

As a player who was born in the 1980 Japanese academic year and participated in the 1998 Summer High School Baseball Championship, Murata is considered a member of the "Matsuzaka Generation".

Murata enrolled in Nihon University in Tokyo as an economics major alongside his high school batterymate Ohno and worked his way into the lineup as the team's starting third baseman, eventually developing into one of the league's more prominent sluggers.

Murata went on to Higashi Fukuoka High School, leading the school to consecutive berths in national tournaments in his senior year (1998) as the team's ace pitcher.

In 2001, his junior year, Murata led his team to the finals of the All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series in June and was chosen to the Japanese team that would play in the 30th Japan-United States University Baseball Championship Series to be held later that month.

He tied a Tohto University Baseball League record for most home runs in a single season (previously held by Tadahito Iguchi) with eight that fall.

Murata earned his second straight selection to the Japanese team prior to the 31st Japan-USA University Baseball Championship Series in the summer of his senior year (2002).

He also played for the national team in the inaugural IBAF World University Baseball Championship held in Italy in August, contributing to the team's bronze medal finish.

Murata hit .275 with 103 hits (tied for sixth all-time), 20 home runs (tied for second all-time) and 70 RBI for his college career, winning the Tohto University Baseball League Best Nine Award four times.

He was signed as a pre-draft pick prior to the 2002 NPB amateur draft held in the fall of his senior year by the Yokohama BayStars.

Ohno, who had played alongside Murata throughout high school and college, was drafted in the fifth round of the draft by the Hawks (he retired in 2007).

Other notable college players selected in the same draft include Tsuyoshi Wada and Nagisa Arakaki (Hawks), Katsuhiro Nagakawa (Hiroshima Toyo Carp), Hirotaka Egusa (Hanshin Tigers) and Gotoh and Chikara Onodera (Lions).

Murata made the ichigun (Japanese equivalent of "major league") roster in the spring of his rookie season in the pros, making his professional debut in the season opener against the Tigers on March 28, getting his first career hit then-Yomiuri Giants veteran Masumi Kuwata on April 1 and hitting his first home run off Giants left-hander Hisanori Takahashi the next day.

His first career stolen base was a steal of home on a delayed double steal against the Carp on May 7.

In the first half of the season, Murata saw a significant amount of playing time at second base, despite having played third base almost exclusively during his college career, due to teammate Katsuaki Furuki's stronghold on third.

He and Furuki started at their respective positions until June, with Murata being moved back to third when Furuki was converted to the outfield in the latter half of the season.

He entered a slump in July and was sent down to the nigun team ("minor league" or "farm team"), but hit 10 home runs in September after being called up a second time, setting an NPB record for home runs hit in a single month by a rookie.

Though his campaign was cut short when he was hit by a pitch thrown by then-Yakult Swallows right-hander Katsutoshi Ishidoh on September 28, fracturing his right ulna, Murata finished with 25 home runs in just 104 games, good for sixth all-time in home runs hit as a rookie (he also finished with a batting average of just .224 and an on-base percentage of .303).

Murata began the season as the BayStars' starting third baseman and No. 5 hitter, but saw fewer starts as the season went on due to his spotty defense and abundance of strikeouts, with then-manager Daisuke Yamashita opting to use veteran Hitoshi Taneda or Seiichi Uchikawa at third base instead.

He often hit in the 7-hole after the All-Star break, striking out less and improving on his on-base percentage but seeing a corresponding drop in his power numbers (home runs, slugging percentage).

Murata spent the majority of the season as the BayStars' No. 7 hitter.

However, despite getting his first career walk-off hit off then-closer Masahide Kobayashi in an interleague game against the Chiba Lotte Marines on May 6, he struggled so much early on in the season that he even found himself slotted into the 9-hole for seven games during interleague play (in games hosted by Pacific League teams in which the designated hitter rule was employed).

He used the lineup change as motivation, hitting a game-winning two-run homer off reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta in a game against the Marines on May 28.

He hit his first career grand slam off Giants left-hander Tetsuya Utsumi on June 22, finishing the year with a .252 average, 24 home runs and 82 RBI.

Murata was chosen to the Nippon Professional Baseball All-Stars that would face the Japanese national team in the exhibition games preceding the inaugural World Baseball Classic in early, hitting a three-run home run off Daisuke Matsuzaka in Game 2 to lead the All-Stars to a 4–3 upset victory over the national team.

It turned out to be a breakout year for Murata, who began the season in the 7-hole but moved up to the No. 5 spot after center fielder Hitoshi Tamura was removed from the active roster due to injury.

He made the first start as cleanup hitter of his career on June 1 in a game against the Hawks as a replacement for slumping first baseman Takahiro Saeki, hitting the first walk-off home run of his career off then-Buffaloes reliever Jun Hagiwara on June 9 in the eleventh inning and following up the feat with his second such shot off Tokyo Yakult Swallows reliever Masao Kida on June 30 in the tenth inning.

He remained in the cleanup spot until the end of the season, finishing with a .266 average, 34 homers and 114 RBI (all career highs) as one of the few consistent sources of offensive production on a team plagued by injuries all year.

However, he also struck out 153 times, leading both Central and Pacific leagues in that category.

Murata was again named to the NPB All-Stars, this time to play in the Major League Baseball Japan All-Star Series, after the regular season.

He batted cleanup in Game 4 and hit a solo home run off then-Anaheim Angels right-hander John Lackey in Game 5, going 4-for-15 (.267) with three RBI for the five-game series.

He played in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as well as the 2009 World Baseball Classic as a member of the Japanese national team and hit cleanup for much of the latter tournament.

Murata was born in Sasaguri, Fukuoka.

He played for the Seto Bears, a local Little League team, in elementary school and for the Kasuya Phoenix in nearby Kasuya in junior high.

Armed with a 143 km/h fastball, Murata carried his team to a 5–0 victory over Izumo Hokuryo Senior High School in their first game in the 70th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament (Higashi Fukuoka High's first-ever appearance in the spring tournament), but succumbed to Yokohama Senior High School in the next round, suffering a two-hit shutout at the hands of Daisuke Matsuzaka and giving up a home run to Taketoshi Gotoh.