CHIBA, Japan (Interstat) — The Chiba Lotte Marines scored three runs in the third inning to erase an early deficit and defeated the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters 5-3 on Thursday night at Chiba Marine Stadium.

The Fighters took a 3-0 lead, scoring twice in the third on a Tatsuki Mizuno sacrifice fly and once in the fourth on a Kota Yazawa solo homer. The Marines answered immediately in the bottom of the third, tying the game on an RBI groundout by Ryusei Terachi, a run-scoring single from Neftali Soto and a sacrifice fly by Yudai Fujioka.

Lotte took the lead for good in the sixth on Gregory Polanco’s RBI single and added an insurance run in the seventh on Ryusei Ogawa’s run-scoring hit. Winning pitcher Akira Yagi improved to 2-0 with two scoreless innings of relief. Rikuto Yokoyama earned his fourth save. The loss went to Yukiya Saito.

Attendance was 25,125. The game lasted 3 hours, 16 minutes.