the league title. In his next game against Keio on June 1, Saito gave up two home runs, losing consecutive starts for the first time in his college career. It was also the first time he gave up multiple home runs in a game since the National High School Baseball Championship finals in 2006. Saito finished the season at just 3-2, relinquishing Waseda's stronghold on the league title to Meiji. Saito spent much of the summer overseas, playing in the IBAF World University Baseball Championship in the Czech Republic and taking part in a tour of Brazil with the rest of the Waseda team. He placed a greater emphasis on running in his workouts. Just how effective Saito's effort to build stamina during the summer would be quickly became evident during the fall season. In one particular stretch from October 11 to October 20, Saito started five of the seven games Waseda played against Hosei and Meiji, going 3-1 and throwing 525 pitches in a 10-day span. Saito held Keio to one run over seven innings in the title clincher on November 1, marking already the third time in his college career that he had pitched in a title-clinching game. He followed the performance up with another win over Keio two days later, finishing the season with a league-leading (and personal-best) 7-1 record and notching at least one win against each of the five other teams in the league (Tokyo, Hosei, Meiji, Keio, and Rikkio), earning him his third selection to the Best Nine Award. 2009 Saito started the spring 2009 season off well, pitching seven shutout innings while striking out 10 and allowing just three hits in a resounding 11-0 victory over the University of Tokyo in the season opener held April 11. However, he had one of the worst outings of his career against Hosei University on April 28, lasting just four innings and giving up six runs (the most in his college career thus far) on six hits, three walks and three hit-batters en route to an 8-4 loss. He rebounded with a stellar outing against Rikkio on May 2, striking out 12 and allowing just two hits over eight shutout innings in a 3-0 victory. Professional career On October 28, 2010, Saito was drafted by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in the 2010 Nippon Professional Baseball draft. Saito made his NPB debut on April 17, 2011 for