FUKUOKA (Interstat) — Yugo Maeda pitched five innings of five-hit ball and the SoftBank Hawks broke open a close game with a three-run seventh inning to beat the Chiba Lotte Marines 8-3 on Sunday afternoon at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome.

Lotte grabbed an early lead when Kouta Inoue hit a two-run homer in the second. SoftBank answered in the third on Ukyo Shuto’s triple and a steal of home. Ryoya Kurihara’s solo homer in the fourth tied the game, and Shuto’s RBI single and Kurihara’s run-scoring single in the fifth put the Hawks ahead. Hotaka Yamakawa’s three-run homer in the seventh made it 8-2. Gregory Polanco hit a solo homer for Lotte in the ninth.

Maeda (1-0) struck out five and allowed two earned runs. Kaito Mouri (2-2) surrendered five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Attendance was 40,122, and the game lasted 2 hours, 59 minutes. SoftBank improved to 19-17, while Lotte fell to 15-21.