Young baseball pitcher Darvish Yu (20) has won over fans in Sapporo over his first couple of seasons, and now he’s won the heart of an equally young actress. The son of an Iranian father and Japanese mother, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher made his name as a high schooler when he threw a no-hitter at the annual summer invitational tournament at Koshien in 2004. His manager Trey Hillman has said of him, “How good do I think he can be? I think he can be the best in the world. He’s not there yet … but I think he can potentially pass a guy like Matsuzaka (Daisuke).” Tall and handsome, he looks like the hero of a baseball manga. And the hero always gets the girl, who in this case is actress Saeko (20). Currently a student in the human sciences school at the prestigious Waseda University, she has a supporting role in the upcoming movie “Closed Note”, starring Sawajiri Erika (21). Darvish’s father Farsa, who lives in Osaka prefecture, said the two were dating and that his son had introduced him to Saeko when he was playing in nearby Kobe.