On 22 March, the opening match between Hokkaido Nippon-Ham and Tokyo Yakult in ES CON FIELD ended in a 3-3 draw.

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham starter Verhagen pitcher struck out the first hitter on three pitches struck out before retiring three batters on just eight pitches. After that, he scored two consecutive struck out in the third and fourth innings to complete a perfect pitch through the fourth. But in the top of the fifth, a teammate's error put the runner on his back, and with two outs and the bases loaded, Takeshi Miyamoto gave up an RBI doble to lead off the inning and exited the game after 56 pitches hit 1 Hit by Pitch 6 strike out 1 runs (earned runs 0).

The offense struggled to hit through five innings against the opposing pitcher. However, in the bottom of the sixth, Martinez's doble and Chusei Mannami 's Walk put runners on first and second with two outs, and a timely hit by substitute hitter Yuma Imagawa led to an error.

The relievers closer the top of the sixth inning with Nao Miyanishi pitcher and Takahide Ikeda pitcher to tie the game at runs, and in the top of the seventh, Koji Fukutani pitcher retired three batters. Takumi Yamamoto pitcher gave up two runs in the top of the eighth, but Reyes hit a Home Run in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 3-3.

In the top of the ninth, Seigi Tanaka pitcher loaded the runner, but thanks to a stolen base by Torai Fushimi, the Yankees got through the inning with runs out. In the bottom of the ninth, substitute hitter Yuya Gunji hit and Martinez reached base on an error, but Reyes was hit by a pitch to right field to end the game.

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham retained the first place in the open round. Imagawa and Yuki Nomura, who came on as substitutes, responded to the call by throwing hit.

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Ya 000010020 3
Day 000002010 3

Ya Yoshimura Mitsujiro - Sakaguchi Kosuke - Kanekubo Yuto - Hasegawa Chuuki - Ishiyama Yasuchika - Yamamoto Daiki - Kizawa Naofumi - Taguchi Reito
Japanese: Verhagen-Nao Miyanishi Naoyuki-Ikeda Takahide Ikeda-Koji Fukutani-Takumi Yamamoto-Seigi Tanaka

Text by Aoi Nishijima

・ Match details/video