page_title: Hikaru Ito
section_title: Orix Buffaloes
hierarchical_section_title: Hikaru Ito / Orix Buffaloes
caption_attribution_description: English: Hikaru Ito, catcher of the Surpass, at Maishima Baseball Stadium. 日本語: サーパス捕手の伊藤光。舞洲ベースボールスタジアムにて。
context_page_description: Hikaru Ito is a Japanese professional baseball catcher for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
context_section_description: 2008
  He spent his first year training to improve his skills as catcher in the team's Western League games. But due to his young age and lack of experience, he only batted at an average of 0.192 in 40 games with a strike-out rate of 0.25. Defense-wise, he had the most number of passed balls. Nevertheless, he had the most number of game appearances among the team's rookie catchers. He was finally given a chance at the first squad when he made his debut on the September 19 match against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
  Even though he didn't hit any home runs in any of his League games, he was able to hit two during inter-squad games.
  2009
  On the spring of his 2nd year, he underwent surgery to treat his herniated disc. Even though he only required 2 weeks of rest after surgery and aimed to return to play after 3 months, he was not given any plate appearances for the season. Also, because his left calf muscle suffered at the aftermath of his surgery, Manager Daijiro Oishi thought it best not to rush him into play.
  2010
  Upon being allowed to play in 2nd squad games after a year of absence, he was reported to have burst into tears when he made his first hit. He was given another chance to appear in two ichi-gun matches during the latter part of the season.
  During postseason, he was assigned the jersey number 54, and his former number (61) was assigned to former major-leaguer Chan Ho Park who just joined the team at that time.
  2011
  With new Manager Akinobu Okada seeing his potential as the team's main catcher, Ito was assigned to the ichi-gun camp and eventually made his way to the team's starting line up.
  Despite being demoted to ni-gun twice during his occasional slumps, he rose to the occasion when he teamed up with ace Chihiro Kaneko, and his starts gradually increased. And ever since he helped Yuki Nishi achieve his first official win and Hayato Terahara notch his first shutout victory in 3 years, he formed batteries with them in most of their games for the rest of the season.
  He hit his first career home-run on the May 25 game versus the Swallows. His momentum was halted, however, when his right index finger was fractured in a collision at the home plate with Seibu's Takeya Nakamura during the September 11 match, and he was required to rest for the remainder of the season.
  Even though he finished with a career-high of 66 games, his batting skills remained below par (0.156 batting average, 0.36 KO rate). He did, however, top the team in fielding with a caught stealing percentage of 0.318. His jersey number was again changed to 22 during postseason.
  2012
  Throughout the season, he alternated with Fumihiro Suzuki and Toshio Saito as the team's starting catchers. On the April 8 game versus the Eagles, he batted a sacrifice fly to score a run, helped Hiroshi Kisanuki notch a 5-hit shutout win, to experience his first ever hero interview. Four days later, he was hit on the head by a full swing from Josh Whitesell's bat and was carried off the field on a stretcher and taken to a hospital in Chiba, where he was diagnosed with a contusion on the right side of his head.
  On the offensive, he batted in 36 hits and 10 RBIs, with an improved average of .205. Defense-wise, he was able to team up with most of Orix's pitchers in 66 game appearances. On their last regular season game on October 8, he led the younger Yuki Nishi to accomplish the highly coveted no-hit no-run against the SoftBank Hawks (3-0). The 76th no-hitter in NPB history and the 8th for Orix, the game was only one walk away to being a perfect game.
  He and Tomotaka Sakaguchi were named Vice Chairmen in the Orix player's meeting during off season.
  2013
  With the retirement of mainstay catcher Fumihiro Suzuki and Takeshi Hidaka exercising his domestic free agency option, Itoh ultimately became the team's main catcher. With his goal to appear in at least 100 games as main catcher, he played from the season's opening series then steadily continued to deliver in the team's succeeding matches. It came as no surprise therefore when he received the fans' topmost votes among the Pac
caption: Maishima Stadium, August 2, 2008
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