Roki Sasaki threw 194 pitches and then 129 in the same 2019 tournament. In the final his manager sat him, and Ofunato lost 12-2

Three months before the final that made him a national argument, Roki Sasaki had already made headlines. At a national team candidates' camp on April 6, 2019, the Ofunato High School senior was clocked at 163 km/h, about 101 mph, in an intrasquad game, striking out all six batters he faced. Daily Sports and Number Web both reported it as beyond anything Shohei Ohtani had thrown in high school.

The workload came that summer in Iwate. In the fourth round against Morioka Daiyon, Sasaki threw 194 pitches over 12 innings and won the game with his own two-run home run. Ofunato won its quarterfinal against Kuji without him pitching. In the semifinal against Ichinoseki Technical, he threw a two-hit shutout with 15 strikeouts on 129 pitches. The final came the next day, July 25, with Ofunato's first Koshien trip since 1984 at stake.

Sasaki neither pitched nor batted. Manager Yohei Kokubo said the decision was his and gave the reason as preventing injury, pointing to the pitch count, the short rest and the heat. Hanamaki Higashi won 12-2. Writer Yuji Yanagawa, in Bunshun Online, described jeers from the Ofunato stands and arguments in response. Sasaki's own public line, reported by web Sportiva, was short: "It can't be helped."

Japan's coverage divided quickly. Nikkan Gendai questioned why other options had not been tried earlier in the tournament. Writer Takahiro Kikuchi argued in web Sportiva that the tight tournament schedule deserved more scrutiny than the manager. In 2024, Hanamaki Higashi's Hiroshi Sasaki told Yanagawa in Number Web that he had prepared for Sasaki to start, and that he too had once kept Ohtani from pitching to protect him. Lotte drafted Roki Sasaki that autumn.