Hasegawa Leads the Way for Hawks

Last year, in 71 games, Yuya Hasegawa was batting only .235, but showcased some of his possible talent, both with the glove and with the stick. Hasegawa so far in the 2009 season has been nothing short of brilliant, and he led the way for the Hawks today, as SoftBank pounced on the suspect Lotte pitching. But it was by no means easy.

SoftBank began the day with a huge first inning off of Naoyuki Shimizu. After Honda grounded out to begin the game, Shimizu unraveled, walking both Kawasaki and the slumping Matsunaka, then hitting Kokubo with a pitch. Up came Hasegawa, and he cleaned the bases out with a triple to center field that also put the light-hitting Hawks up 3-0. The fourth run came from an unexpected source: reserve catcher Hidenori Tanoue, who singled home Hasegawa and extended SoftBank's lead to 4-0.

Nagisa Arakaki, making his first start of 2009, worked around a double and a walk in the 1st, but he did not dodge a home run from Saburo in the 2nd inning, and another in the 3rd from Arakaki's former teammate Tadahito Iguchi, this one a two-run jack that brought Lotte to within one at 4-3. With Lotte trailing 4-3, Arakaki gave back the one run that Lotte needed to tie the score thanks to a sacrifice fly by Shunichi Nemoto.

With the score tied and Arakaki out of the game, it came down to a battle of the bullpens. Yasushi Kamiuchi, who has been very good as a left-handed reliever thus far, worked around two walks in the 5th. Yuki Kume then put the Marines on ice for three innings despite walking four and giving up one hit. The important statistic was that Kume gave up no runs.

The Marines got one more inning out of Shimizu before turning it over to Komiyama in the 6th. Komiyama got through his inning of work before handing it over to Takagi. He got through 2/3 of an inning and Itoh took over. While he got through the 7th and 8th, Itoh started the 9th with a walk to Honda.

Yusuke Kawasaki exacerbated the problem by walking his first batter in Munenori Kawasaki. Matsunaka grounded out on a slow roller to 2nd, which put Honda and Munerin into scoring position. Kokubo put the dagger in the heart by singling in Honda and Munerin. Hasegawa capped his 4-for-5 day by doubling in Kokubo for his fourth RBI of the day. That also capped the scoring as Takahiro Mahara slammed the door in the 9th to notch his 3rd save of the season.

The player of the game was easily Hasegawa, as he was 4-for-5, just a home run shy of the cycle. Stolen bases went to Munenori Kawasaki (4) and Takeshi Tsuji (1).

The win brings the Hawks even with the Marines for 5th place in the Pacific League. Tomorrow the Hawks send ace Toshiya Sugiuchi (1-0, 2.45) to the mound to face Hiroyuki Kobayashi (0-1, 7.15).