(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Fukuoka Hawks open Nippon Series with win
Nederlands
 CHUO-KU, FUKUOKA (Japan) -
Defending champion Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks opened the best-of-seven Nippon Series on Saturday-evening (October 24) with a 4-2 win against Tokyo Yakult Swallows.
Last year, the Hawks won the Nippon Series, beating the Hanshin Tigers, 4-1.
A year ago, the team began the final with a 6-2 loss, but the Hawks won the next four games in a row.
Game Two will be played on Sunday.
Fukuoka Hawks captured the title again in the Pacific League by sweeping Chiba Lotte Marines, 4-0, in the semi-final.
Tokyo Swallows won the championship in the Central League by winning its series against Yomiuri Giants, 4-1.
The Swallows are playing in the Nippon Series for the first time since 2001.
Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk is pitching this season for Fukuoka.
He was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the semi-final against the Marines, throwing six innings.
In the regular season, the righthander appeard in 15 games and closed with a 9-0 record and 2.52 ERA.
Van den Hurk struckout 120 batters in 93 innings and walked only 22 baters, while giving up 69 basehits.
On Saturday-evening, at the Fukuoka Yafuoku! Dome, filled with 35,732 spectactors, the home team opened the score with a 3-run rally in the fourth inning.
With one out, Nobuhiro Matsuda homered off of starting pitcher Masanori Ishikawa.
Hereafter, five consecutive singles followed, leading to the next two runs.
The singles hit by Hiroaki Takaya and Keizo Kawashima lifted the lead to 3-0.
Fukuoka added a run in the sixth inning.
Kenta Imamiya led off with a single, moved on a sacrifice bunt by Hiroaki Takaya, then scored on a 2-out double by Kenji Akashi.
The Swallows were only able to do something back in the ninth inning.
Fukuoka-pitcher Shota Takeda dominated, but gave up two singles in the first inning, hit by Shingo Kawabata and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama, but they were left behind.
In the third inning, with one out, he walked a batter, then was supported with a double play.
From that moment on, Takeda retired 14 batters in a row.
In the eighth inning, with one out, he gave up an infield-hit to Keiji Obiki, but he also was left behind.
In the top of the ninth, with the Hawks leading 4-0 and one out, Shingo Kawabata reached on an error, but a flyout followed.
Takeda's shutout then ended when next batter Kazuhiro Hatakeyama homered to cut the deficit in half, but that was to be it.
Dutch outfielder Wladimir Balentien was 0-for-3 for the Swallows as designated hitter.
Next month, Balentien will participate with the Netherlands National Baseball Team in the Premier12, which opens in Taiwan.
The Swallows had only four basehits off of Shota Takeda, who went the distance for the Hawks, but struckout only one batter.
The 22-year old Takeda became the youngest pitcher in club-history to win a first game of the championship series.
The Hawks collected 15 basehits off of five pitchers, but stranded eleven runners.
Three of the hits were hit by designated hitter Dae-Ho Lee.
All starting players of the Hawks collected at least one basehit.
(October 24)
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