Baseball: Prized player's shot at high school glory ends on bench

Hard-throwing Japanese high school pitcher Roki Sasaki, who is being heavily scouted by major league clubs, stayed on the bench to avoid injury as his team was eliminated from contention for a prestigious national title on Thursday.Sasaki, who threw a pitch at 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) per hour on Sunday in the fourth round of Iwate Prefecture's summer tournament and was clocked at 163 kph (101.3 mph) in April, did not pitch in the prefectural final, Ofunato High School's 12-2 loss to Hanamaki Higashi High School."It was the manager's decision, so I don't think it can be helped," Sasaki s…READ FULL ARTICLE