is a professional Japanese

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

player. He plays

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, who attempts to e ...

for the

Chunichi Dragons The are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant nine times (most recently in ...

Early career

Nakachi started playing baseball while at Yomitan Village Furugen Elementary School, and while at Yomitan Village Furugen Middle School, he started playing with Chatan Boys. Chasing after his 2-year senior brother, Kuore, Nakachi entered Okinawa Prefectural Kadena Senior High School. In summer of his first year, his team made it to the

Japanese High School Baseball Championship The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', ta ...

with his brother as the team's ace, but Nakachi hadn't even made the bench. From his second year however, Nakachi would perform as the team's ace but unfortunately was unable to emulate his brother's experience at Koshien, going as far as the semi-finals of the Okinawan Prefectural tournament where he lost out to Kōnan High School's, Hiroya Miyagi. Nakachi would join

Okinawa University is a private university in Naha, Okinawa, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, whi ...

, starting on the bench in his first year. In spring of his third year in the All Japan Baseball Championship, he would pitch 8 innings for one earned-run against Meijo University, collecting the interest of scouts. On September 10, 2022, Nakachi submitted his expression of interest to become a professional baseball player. The

would late make public that they would be selecting Nakachi with their first-round pick, and on October 19, the Dragons would make well on the word selecting Nakachi in the first round of the

2022 Nippon Professional Baseball draft The 2022 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 20, , for the 58th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Taisho Pharmaceutica ...

. Upon selection, he became the first Okinawa University alumni to be selected in the draft. On 7 November, Nakachi signed a contract worth ¥16,000,000 per year with a sign-on bonus of ¥100,000,000 and ¥50,000,000 in incentives.

Professional career

Chunichi Dragons

2023

Nakachi started spring training with the second team, however he would later join up with the first team in the latter half. He appeared in some pre-season games. On 13 May, Nakachi made his first-team debut as a starter against the

Tokyo Yakult Swallows The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Y ...

, however after giving up a 2-run homer to

Munetaka Murakami is a Japanese professional baseball infielder for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Amateur career Munetaka started playing baseball at five years of age. He entered Kyushū Gakuin Integrated High School where he ...

in the first inning, he was replaced in the second inning by a pinch-hitter leaving the game as the losing pitcher. On July 26, Nakachi would record his first win with 6 scoreless innings against the Yokohama DeNA Baystars. He would appear in 9 games in total, going 2–5 with a 4.98 ERA and 37 strieouts. In the offseason, his contract would be downgraded by ¥1,000,000, re-signing at ¥15,000,000 for 2024. In late November, Nakachi would join the NPB WHITE team for the Asia Winter Baseball League in Taiwan.

Pitching style

Nakachi tops out at 152 km/h while equipped with a change-up, curveball, cutter, slider, two-seamer and a split-finger fastball.

Personal

Nakachi says he aims to be a pitcher like fellow Okinawans,

Nao Higashihama is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. Early baseball career Higashihama pitched in the 3rd grade spring 80th Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament as Okinawa ...

and Sōhachi Aniya.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakachi, Reaia 2001 births Living people Okinawa University alumni Baseball people from Okinawa Prefecture Japanese baseball players Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers Chunichi Dragons players