SHINJI Mizushima's manga series 'Yakyukyo no Uta' (A Song for Baseball Freaks), which depicts Yuki Mizuhara, a female pro baseball pitcher who manipulates a magic 'dream ball', caught the eye of Eri Yoshida, 16, when she was a first-year high school student.

At that time, Yoshida was fascinated with Mizuhara and started dreaming of becoming a pro pitcher. The high school student fulfilled her dream 18 months later.

Yoshida dazzled male baseball players with her knuckleball, which drops waveringly in front of the batter, at the joint tryout for the Kansai Independent Baseball League, which will be launched next spring.

Yoshida, who is 155cm tall, started playing baseball when she was in the second grade of primary school, having developed a love for the game after her elder brother introduced her to it.

She was a first baseman when she was a middle school student. She switched to pitcher after being intrigued by the pitching of Tim Wakefield, a knuckleballer for the US major league team Boston Red Sox, in the winter of her third year at middle school.

Yoshida's father, Isamu, 45, helped train her how to throw a knuckleball. It seems she already has a sense of professionalism as she refuses to show anyone how she holds the ball when she pitches a knuckleball.

She was born on Jan 17, 1992, exactly three years before the Great Hanshin Earthquake. The Kobe 9 Cruise expects Yoshida will inspire and bring hope to Kobe.

'I'm worried about leaving my parents, but I want to blow batters away with my knuckleball,' said Yoshida, who is a second-year student at Kanagawa Prefectural Kawasaki-Kita High School and loves karaoke.

She will make her debut in spring while studying a high school correspondence course, living in the house of a team executive. -- Yomuri Shimbun/ANN.