(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks)
  First start Van den Hurk ends in tie
Nederlands
  SENDAI / FUKUOKA (Japan) -
The new season in Nippon Professional Baseball is a week old and Dutch professional pitcher Rick van den Hurk has thrown his first game, but that ended in a 12-inning tie.
On Friday, March 25, the new professional season in Japan went underway.
Through games played on Thursday (March 31), six teams have played six games, the other six have played five so far.
...Rick van den Hurk makes a delivery during...
...his first start of the season...
(© Photo courtesy of Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) |
Dutch righthander Rick van den Hurk is playing in his second season with Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, which last year captured the Championship-title.
With that, Van den Hurk won his third consecutive championship.
In the two years before, he won the title in the professional Korean Baseball Organization with Samsung Lions.
The Hawks are currently in third place in the Pacific League, one of the two Japanese Major Leagues.
The Hawks are 2-2 with a tie.
The leaders in this league are Chiba Lotte Marines and Seibu Lions, who are both 3-2.
The wellknown Tokyo Yomiuri Giants lead in the Central League with a 5-1 record.
The Giants were handed their first loss on Wednesday by Yokohama BayStars, who won 6-3.
The Hawks opened the season on March 25 in Sendai with a 7-3 loss against Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The next day, Saturday, March 26, at Kobo Stadium Miyagi in Sendai, the second game between the two teams ended in a 3-3 tie.
Ties are common in Japanese professional baseball, as game ends after twelve innings when the score is still tied.
Rick van den Hurk started the game for the Hawks and threw eight innings.
The righthander struckout six batters, walked two and gave up up only four hits.
The Hawks trailed 1-0 after three innings, but then scored twice in the fourth and once in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.
However, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Van den Hurk gave up a 2-out, 2-run single to Ginji Akaminai that tied the score.
The Hawks closed its series against the Golden Eagles with a 7-0 win on Sunday.
The team then traveled back to Fukuoka and played its first home game on Tuesday at Yafuoku Stadium against Saitama Seibu Lions, but lost 6-2.
On Wednesday, the Hawks won 5-4.
Van den Hurk can look back to a fine first season in Japan, as he was 9-0 last year with a 2.52 ERA, pitching in 15 games.
He struckout 120 batters in 93 innings, while walking only 22.
Van den Hurk gave up 69 basehits and only 27 runs.
Cuban powerhitter Alfredo Despaigne is playing again for Chiba Lotte Marines.
In five games so far, Despaigne is hitting .316, scored three runs and also batted in three.
Last season, the Cuban closed with a .258 batting average and collected 91 basehits, including 18 homeruns in 103 games.
He then scored 49 runs and batted in 62.
(March 31)
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