(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Van den Hurk wins Nippon Series with Hawks
Nederlands
 SHINJUKU, TOKYO (Japan) -
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks shutout Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5-0 on Thursday-evening (October 29) in Game 5 to win the best-of-seven Nippon Series (4-1).
With that, the Hawks repeated as champion of Japanese professional baseball.
This is the seventh championship in club-history.
Fukuoka had taken a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Nippon Series by winning the first two games at home in the weekend.
The team opened on Saturday with a 4-2 victory.
On Sunday, Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk led the Hawks to a 4-0 shutout.
On Tuesday, the Swallows cut the lead in half by winning 8-4.
On Wednesday, the Hawks took a 3-1 lead by winning Game Four with a 6-4 score.
Recap Game One
Recap Game Two
Recap Game Three
Recap Game Four
For Rick van den Hurk, this is his third consecutive Championship-title!
The righthander played for Samsung Lions in 2013 and 2014 in the Korean Baseball Organization.
And while with the Lions, Van den Hurk won the title in Korean professional baseball in both seasons.
At the moment, the Lions are playing in the Korean Series again.
In the tonight's game, which lasted three hours and 36 minutes, the first three innings remained scoreless.
The Hawks then scored twice in both the fourth and fifth inning en route to the victory and the championship.
American pitcher Jason Standridge started for the Hawks and gave up only four hits in the six innings he was on the mound.
Three relievers then closed the game, giving up one more additional basehit to the Swallows.
Masanori Ishikawa started for the Swallows.
He gave up a lead-off double to Keizo Kawashima in the first inning, but then retired the next nine batters in a row.
In the fourth inning, Ishikawa gave up a lead-off double to Kenji Akashi, who then scored when Dae-Ho Lee homered with one out.
Lee was named Most Valuable Player of the Nippon Series.
The Hawks doubled their lead in the fifth inning.
Again, there was a lead-off double, this time hit by Kenta Imamiya.
With one out, Jason Standridge walked, which led to a pitching change.
Ishikawa was relieved by Taichi Akiyoshi, who got the bases loaded when Keizo Kawashima reached on an error.
A single by Kenji Akashi and grounder by Yuki Yanagita then led to two runs and lifted the lead to 4-0.
Fukuoka added its final run in the top of the ninth inning.
Pinch-hitter Yuichi Honda led off with a single, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Shuhei Fukuda and scored on an one-out single by Yuki Yanagita to make it 5-0.
Standridge got two baserunners in the second inning.
With one out,Wladimir Balentien singled, as did Yuhei Takai with two outs, but both stranded.
The Swallows also got baserunners in the next two at bats.
In the third, with one out, Tsuyoshi Ueda walked and Shingo Kawabata singled, but a strikeout and flyout followed.
In the fourth, Takahiro Imanami singled with one out, then was left behind.
After retiring the side in the fifth, Standridge walked Kazuhiro Hatakeyama with one out in the sixth, but then the Hawks-defense turned a double play.
After the Swallows stranded a runner in the seventh and eighth inning off of two relievers, closer Dennis Sarfate threw the ninth inning.
He retired the side and ended the inning, the game, the series and the season with a strikeout.
(October 29)
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