Sora Mekajiki Rookie Spotlight

Following a Silver Slugger winning season in which he was the runner-up to Tracy Prezzy Jr's .317 batting average with an average of .313 himself, Sora Mekajiki left the SBLM behind and joined the ranks of the Toronto Bighorns in the SBL. The Bighorns selected him in the SBL Inaugural Draft, with the last pick of the 2nd round. The transition from the minor to the major league should have rough for the Japanese contact hitter, as not only was he going to face tougher opponents, he was also expected to play a role different from what he was used to during the last campaign with the Sherbrooke Mohawks. In fact, while he spent most of last season proving to the SBL scouts that he was one of the best leadoff batters available in the draft, Paul Mason of the Bighorns added him to his team, seeing in him the skills of a great cleanup hitter. So, fresh off a 20-homerun season in with the Mohawks, the 14th most in the SBLM last season, the Japanese center fielder trained his strength this summer, hoping he could prove the Bighorns GM gamble was justified and it did payoff. In his third at-bat of the season, Sora Mekajiki ejected Nate Nitro's fastball out of the Galaxy Park in Indianapolis.

19 games later, with the first sixth of the season done, Mekajiki is sitting at the 2nd rank in the league in runs, at the 3rd rank runs batted in, home runs and isolated power, and at the 4th rank in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, proving out of doubt that his versatile toolkit can make him into both a great contact and power hitter even when he plays against the best of them.