YES Network.com

The Yankees’ acquisition of Ichiro on Monday has likely dominated the baseball-related headlines in Japan this week, but a prep pitcher in Ichiro’s homeland has lit up the back pages last week thanks to his electric repertoire.

Shohei Otani, an 18-year-old Japanese high school student, captured the attention of scouts around the island nation after he threw a pitch clocked at 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) during a televised regional tournament semifinal game on July 18.

“It felt good to throw my favorite fastball like that,” Otani told Japanese reporters, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. “That was the speed I promised the coach I would throw so I’m glad to have clocked that figure.”

Currently, the fastest recorded pitch in Major League Baseball belongs to Cincinnati Reds pitcher Aroldis Chapman, whose fastball was once clocked at 105 mph.

Otani and his Hanamaki Higashi High School teammates defeated Ichinoseki Gakuin 9-1 in that semifinal game, and were set to face Morioka Daifu in the finals of the Iwate prefecture tournament on Wednesday.