FUKUOKA (Interstat) — Yudai Shoji drove in three runs and Tomoya Masaki hit a two-run homer as the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeated the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles 6-1 on Sunday night at Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome.

Haru Matsumoto pitched five innings of two-hit ball to earn the win, improving to 8-2. He struck out two. Rakuten starter Tatsuki Koja allowed no earned runs over five innings but took the loss, falling to 1-9.

SoftBank took a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Kensuke Kondoh singled with two outs. The Hawks broke it open in the sixth, scoring four runs. Shoji tripled in two, and Masaki followed with a home run to left. Shoji added an RBI single in the eighth.

Rakuten scored its only run in the seventh.

Matsumoto, Kazuki Sugiyama, Yuki Matsumoto, Yuki Tsumori and Roberto Osuna combined to hold the Golden Eagles to five hits. SoftBank collected 12 hits.

The Hawks improved to 67-40-1, while Rakuten dropped to 41-63-1. Attendance was 39,894, and the game lasted 3 hours, 12 minutes.