FUKUOKA (Interstat) — Ryosuke Ohtsu pitched seven strong innings as the SoftBank Hawks defeated the Seibu Lions 3-1 on Thursday evening at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome. Ohtsu allowed one run on three hits with four strikeouts to improve to 8-2. Kazuki Sugiyama earned his 14th save with a scoreless ninth.

The Lions grabbed an early lead in the second inning when Kazunari Ishii hit a solo home run. SoftBank answered in the fifth, loading the bases before Tomoya Masaki singled to shallow left, driving in two runs. Ryoya Kurihara added a solo homer in the sixth.

Natsuki Takeuchi took the loss, falling to 5-4 after allowing three runs on five hits over six innings while striking out seven. Seibu managed only four hits, while SoftBank had six. Attendance was 40,122. The game lasted 2 hours, 27 minutes. SoftBank improved to 44-29-1, while Seibu fell to 44-32-2.