Sawamura Learns to Trust Himself at the Plate

ARTICLE BY: MICHAEL BAUER | ODESSA AMERICAN

If there's one thing Eiji Sawamura has learned in his second season at Odessa College, it's to just trust himself when stepping up to the plate.

In the past, the sophomore from Tokyo had become pull-happy at the plate.

However, after working through the mental aspect of it, Sawamura has a better understanding of his strengths as a batter.

So far this season, Sawamura has managed 37 hits, 28 RBIs along with an average of .363.

It's slightly better than where he was as a freshman a year ago where Sawamura finished with 26 hits and an average of .325.

He talked about what he's worked on to improve his batting average.

"Coach (David) Wood's been telling me to just trust myself," Sawamura said. "So I just keep it simple and I also work with a shortstop every day at practice. During batting practice, I just hit to the shortstop."

Sawamura has been one of many crucial reasons the Wranglers are challenging for the Western Junior College Athletic Conference title.

Odessa College (35-13 overall, 27-5 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference) will face second-place New Mexico Junior College (36-15, 26-6) in a four-game series starting with a doubleheader at noon Thursday at Wrangler Ballpark.

The series will finish with a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Friday in Hobbs, N.M.

For Wood, the goal was to make Sawamura understand his strengths when batting.

"We wanted to try and have him understand that his strength was staying on the ball and going from the middle of the field to the big part of the field and also using his bunt game because he's really good at that," Wood said. "And so he was battling through some of the mental stuff with that because he wasn't trusting the approach in batting practice and when we were getting to the game."

Now that he's seen the results, it's become easier to trust the process.

"Every time he gets in the box, I'm yelling at him to trust," Wood said. "I just yell 'trust' and he's believing in that more."

One such example of him improving at the plate included a walkoff hit against Western Texas College back on March 28 at home.

"It was my first walk off in my life career," Sawamura said when describing the moment. "So, yeah, that was crazy what happened for me. It was so great."

With the Wranglers, it's been a night-and-day difference between this season and last year.

In 2024, the team finished 27-28 and didn't make it to the Region V Tournament.

Now, with a new coach and better results, it's been a different story for Sawamura and his teammates.

"Last year was just, you know we were enjoying playing baseball but we didn't win that much," Sawamura said. "But this year, we have a new coach that wants to win and right now, we're first in our conference. I'm just following what he says and playing my best baseball."

Growing up in Japan, a nation that loves baseball just as much as the United States, Sawamura said his favorite player was former Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki.

Not to mention, he is a fan of Shohei Ohtani.

When I grew up younger, I loved Ichiro so much," Sawamura said. "And then, after I came over here, I saw Shohei play so I would say my two favorite players are Ichiro and Shohei."

Right now, Sawamura and his teammates are just focusing on getting past New Mexico Junior College and winning a WJCAC title.

"I think we can beat them," Sawamura said. "I think we can sweep them because we have a lot of confidence."

Not to mention, a lot of trust.

"We trust each other," Sawamura said. "I think we have a lot of chances to beat (NMJC) this week. So, we just need to go out and play and that's it."