FUKUOKA, Japan (Interstat) — The SoftBank Hawks defeated the Chiba Lotte Marines 3-2 on Friday evening at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome before 40,122 fans.

SoftBank scored first in the third inning on Tatsuru Yanagimachi’s sacrifice fly. Lotte answered with two runs in the fourth on a Neftali Soto groundout and a Ryusei Terachi single. The Hawks reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Yuki Yanagita double and a Hikaru Kawase triple.

Carter Stewart Jr. (5-3) allowed one earned run over 5.2 innings for the win, striking out two. Kazuki Sugiyama earned his 15th save with a perfect ninth. SoftBank used five relievers who combined for three hitless innings.

Lotte starter Koshiro Hiroike (2-4) took the loss despite a strong outing, allowing two earned runs on six hits with six strikeouts in seven innings.

SoftBank improved to 45-29-2, while Lotte fell to 36-34-3. The game lasted 2 hours, 47 minutes.