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is a Nippon Professional Baseball catcher for the Hanshin Tigers in Japan's Central League. Since joining the Tigers, he was given the nickname "Ume-chan". ==Early Baseball Career== Born in Nakagawa-cho, Fukuoka Prefecture, Ryutaro started playing baseball when he was in 2nd grade, mainly due to the influence of his father who at that time was a coach of the town's little league team. He originally played as an outfielder, but changed his position to catcher when he was in 4th grade. In middle school, his team, the Nakagawa Sharks, regularly participated in the Japan Baseball League. From 2005-2006, he led his team to 2 consecutive overall championships as the main catcher and 4th batter. Under a baseball scholarship program, he entered Fukuoka Koudai Joto High School where he played as an outfielder until the summer of his sophomore year. He was elected as team captain and returned to the catcher position during the autumn of the same year. He was a year ahead Masahiro Nakatani, another Hanshin player drafted straight from high school, who also converted from an outfielder to a catcher. He hit a total of 24 home runs in high school. Ryutaro was supposed to be included in the 2009 amateur draft, but he thought he might not be able to handle the strain from professional matches yet, so he decided to attend Fukuoka University instead. His team regularly competed in the Kyushu University Baseball League, and for four consecutive seasons, made it to the finals. In all his league appearances, he hit a total of 28 home runs, and recorded a batting average of .300.〔 In addition, he was selected as captain of Japan's team to the 2013 USA College Baseball Championships, where Japan won the series 3-2. In November 2013, his team defeated Nippon Bunri Daigaku in the Kyushu University Baseball League championships. With this, their team represented the Kyushu region in the 44th Meiji Jingu Baseball Tournament. Unfortunately, his team was eliminated in the first round (November 16), despite him delivering three hits and a solo homer. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ryutaro Umeno」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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