On 7 March, the opening match between Chiba Lotte and Fukuoka Softbank in Zozo Marine Stadium ended in a 3-2 win for Fukuoka Softbank.

Fukuoka Softbank started Tomohisa Ozeki pitcher. He carried runner for the first two inning in a row, but tightened up the key points and went runs. But in the bottom of the third, Misho Nishikawa 's doble put runners on second and third with one out, and Polanco followed with a double play. He gave up another hit in the bottom of the fourth, but didn't allow a run, exiting the game after 4 innings of 63 pitches hit 2 Hit by Pitch 2 strike out 1 runs.

​Haruhiro Hamaguchi pitcher, the sophomore, closer a triple in the bottom of the fifth, but gave up a Walk to the leadoff hitter in the bottom of the sixth to load the bases with two outs Kyuto Ueda He was hit by a player at the right time, and the score was 0-2. The offense was held scoreless for 1 hit until the sixth inning. Still, in the top of the seventh, with the bases loaded at Hit by Pitch and Yudai Shoji advanced to third base with a stolen base, Downs closed the gap to one run on an RBI single.

In the bottom of the seventh, Katsuki Matayoshi pitcher and in the bottom of the eighth, Hikaru Kimura pitcher tied the game with no hit no runs. Then, in the top of the ninth inning, back-to-back singles by Akira Nakamura and Shoko put runners on second and third with no outs, and with two outs, Tatsuru Yanagimachi hit a two-run RBI single to doble the game. Shunsuke Iwasaki pitcher closed out the bottom of the ninth inning to end the game with a 3-2 lead.

In Chiba Lotte the loss, starter Kazuya Ojima pitcher threw 75 pitches in five innings hit allowing 1 Walk 36 strike out runs no-. Ryusei Terachi, who started at No. 8 and catcher, went 3-hit.

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SO 000000102 3
B 001001000 2

SO Tomohisa Ozeki-Haruhiro Hamaguchi-Katsuki Matayoshi-Hikaru Kimura- S Shunsuke Iwasaki
Kazuya Kazuya Ojima- Guerrero -Naoya Masuda-Yusuke Azuma-Fumiya Ono

Text by Aoi Nemoto

・ Match details/video​