June 3rd Iwata v Houlton - Victory is ours

Tigers finally played like they could - maybe because of home advantage but the performance was much better even though masses of chances were wasted. Houlton to be honest was poor which was surprising given his 6-1 record going into the match. But it is nice to see Tigers at last showing some of the quality we all know they have. Brazell restored to No. 5 responded by driving in a run and Iwata gave a fine performance. Scores

        1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Hawks   1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 6 2
Tigers  1 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 X 5 9 0

Starting lineups

Hawks
1. Kawasaki (Short)
2. Honda (Second)
3. Uchikawa (Left)
4. Kokubo (First)
5. Tamura (Right)
6. Matsuda (Third)
7. Hasegawa (Centre)
8. Hosokawa (Catcher)
9. Houlton (Pitcher)

Tigers
1. Murton (Right)
2. Hirano (Second)
3. Toritani (Short)
4. Arai (Third)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Kanemoto (Left)
7. Johjima (Catcher)
8. Shibata (Short)
9. Iwata (Pitcher)

It all started so smoothly for Hawks. Kawasaki led off the first with a hit to centre. Honda grounded out forcing out Kawasaki but then Iwata let go a pass ball. This took Honda nicely to third. Uchikawa walked and Hawks had runners on the corners. Kokubo struck out swinging but then Tamura hit comfortably to right to bring the first run home 1-0 Hawks runners on first and third. Just the first innings and already things looked dark. Iwata struck out Matsuda to end the innings. Tigers first and Murton took two balls before driving his first strike into left for a hit. Hirano bunted neatly to take him to second but Toritani was having an off day and he hit the ball straight back to Houlton for the second out. Next was Arai who drove his first pitch nicely into right field for a timely hit 1-1 scores tied runner on first. This was the point that you thought maybe Houlton wasn't pitching well. Brazell hit to centre to end the innings. Hawks second started with a walk to Hasegawa. Hosokawa bunted him to second and second was where he stayed. Houlton struck out and Kawasaki put one nicely into the glove of Kanemoto. Tigers second and Houlton was worse than the first. Kanemoto hit nicely to right to lead off the innings. Then Johjima walked. Shibata was next and he bunted - the ball beating Houlton's attempted field and rolling to short. Of course by the time Kawasaki picked it up the bases were loaded with no outs. The thing was the next batter was Iwata. He surprised everyone hitting just to the left of Houlton into centre, one runner home 2-1 Tigers, bases loaded. Murton went right and hit to second for a double play but brought home a runner 3-1 Tigers, Shibata on third. Hirano struck out to end the innings. In some ways a disappointment - Murton's double play wasn't that good but one can't argue with a two run lead. Iwata started Hawks third with another walk - this time Honda. Uchikawa hit his first pitch back to Iwata who threw to second for the double play. Then Kokubo grounded out to short and the innings was over. Tigers third was also quiet as Houlton seemed to have settled down though Arai did go close flying out deep to left. The ball just died and Uchikawa took the ball near the fence.

Hawks fourth was quiet - Iwata had found a nice rythym and was pitching very smoothly now. Tigers fourth was a big wasted chance. Kanemoto hit his first pitch to short - the throw came in but missed Kokubo's outstretched glove and Kanemoto was safe. The next pitch dead balled Johjima and the third pitch was bunted along the third baseline by Shibata. He seems to have a nice line in bunts because by the time third could field he was safe and the bases were loaded again with no outs. Here Tigers missed the chance and Hawks fought back with some fine pitching. Iwata didn't repeat his feat of the second and struck out looking. Murton struck out swinging and then Hirano grounded out to first to end the innings. Houlton after getting himself into a mess had extracted himself nicely. Hawks fifth was quiet and the batters fell in order. If Houlton thought he was safe he was sadly mistaken - Tigers fifth was just as much of a nightmare as the other innings. Toritani walked on a full count and then Arai drove to left - runners on first and second. Brazell hit to right and just missed a home run and then hit deep to left bouncing the ball off the fence and bringing home Toritani 4-1 Tigers, runners on first and second. Kanemoto flew out to centre and Johjima hit straight to short where Kawasaki dropped the ball for another error and Johjima was safe - bases loaded. Kawasaki punched his glove furiously as if to blame it for the error. Shibata hit a ground out to first but brought home another run 5-1 Tigers, runners on second and third. Iwata once again struck out to end the innings but Tigers were comfortably in the driving seat. Honda led off Hawks sixth with a hit. Uchikawa followed lining out to Brazell who attempted to tag Honda for the double play but was just to late. Honda then made second on Kokubo's ground out. Kokubo was not so fortunate and was out. Tamura flew out to Hirano and the innings was over. It was decided in the Hawks dugout that another innings of Houlton was not on the cards and so his place was taken by Yoshikawa. He immediately gave up a two base hit to Murton who was then bunted to third by Hirano. Toritani grounded out to second but Murton stayed on third - the fielder being well in. Arai also grounded out and that chance went down.

Hawks seventh started with Matsuda lining straight out to Toritani. Then Hasegawa hit to right. Next came Ortiz (pinch hitter) who stroked a wayward pitch sweetly to centre for a two run home run 5-3 Tigers - this was certainly a very effective use of a pinch hitter. Cabrera (pinch hitter) struck out looking and then Kawasaki grounded out to short to end the innings - it wasn't his night. Was Mayumi right to pitch Iwata seven innings? Home run notwithstanding the answer has to be yes - Iwata had done well and exited with a comfortable lead and a job nicely done. Tigers seventh was pitched Kanezawa who pitched most impressively and retired the batters in order. Enokida took Hawks eighth - he is currently Mayumi's favourite and is used as the main relief pitcher. He gets into jams but at the moment seems to have a knack for getting out of them safely . He didn't quite do this in the eighth but did give up a one out hit to Uchikawa. Kokubo flew out to centre and Uchikawa stayed on first. Then Uchikawa tried to steal second. The throw from Johjima was perfect and Uchikawa was well out ending the innings. Kanezawa also pitched Tigers eighth and did the same as the seventh. Hawks ninth started with Tamura striking out swinging to Kyuji's forks. Matsuda grounded out and then Hasegawa walked. On a one two count Kyuji had sent down a superb inside pitch which was just ruled a ball. He was so pumped up about this that his next two pitches were balls. Result a base runner. Matsunaka (pinch hitter) was the next batter. No longer the force he was he was never a Tyronne Woods either. Even though Matsuda stole second (which Tigers ignored) Kuyji concentrated on the job in hand and struck him out getting him to swing just that little bit too far, end of innings. Tigers victory.

Iwata picked up his second win and Kyuji his 10th save. Even though Tigers had wasted a lot of chances it had been a very good victory. However, they do need to play at this level more frequently. They haven't been workng hard and have let other teams dominate them. Despite the victory the management still needs to change to something a lot more competent. On a satorial note - the retro uniforms look very good but last year's light blue/dark blue socks gave the unform much more impact.