On July 14, in the 12th round match between Hokkaido Nippon-Ham and Fukuoka Softbank held in ES CON FIELD, Fukuoka Softbank won a close 4-2 victory.

Fukuoka Softbank started Naoyuki Uwasawa pitcher with a pitch of determination. In the bottom of the second, he allowed doble to leadoff player Chusei Mannami, leaving one out and runners on first and third, but he scored consecutive struck out against Yuki Nomura and Ruan Ohtsuka. In the bottom of the fourth, he faced a bases loaded crisis with one out, but again swung struck out Nomura. Otsuka also got the ball out and did not allow any runs.

Fukuoka Softbank, wanting to take the lead, broke the deadlock in the top of the 5th with two outs on Tomoya Masaki 's 12th solo homer. Meanwhile, pitcher Uwasawa held on in the bottom of the 6th with no outs bases loaded a huge jam, closer the game and retired mound with 107 pitches in the 6th inning, 6 hit 2 Walk 7 strike out no runs. However, in the bottom of the 7th, second pitcher Osuna pitcher hit a sacrifice fly by Reyes, tying the run.

In the top of the ninth, with the score tied 1-1, Yuki Yanagita infield hit and other factors, with one out and runners on first and second, pinch hitter Tatsuru Yanagimachi doble to left-center to take the lead. With one out and bases loaded playing, they extended the chance, and Masaki added a valuable two-run single to add valuable runs.

In the bottom of the ninth with a three-run lead, Kazuki Sugiyama pitcher gave up a home run to Kotaro Kiyomiya but didn't give up the lead, and Fukuoka Softbank secured his third straight win. At the plate, Masaki posted a four-hit performance for the first time since the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham game on August 28, 2022. In the bottom of the eighth, Yuki Matsumoto pitcher held out a runs in the bottom of the eighth and earned his third win.

Hokkaido Nippon-Ham 's starter Koki Kitayama pitcher pitched 7 innings with 1 runs but couldn't get a single home run in the lineup, resulting in two consecutive losses. Hiroya Shimamoto pitcher, who had contributed with strong relief so far, suffered a crisis due to a teammate's error, and suffered losses against runs for the second consecutive game.

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So 000010003 4
Day 000000101 2

So Naoyuki Uwasawa- Osuna - ○ Yuki Matsumoto- S Kazuki Sugiyama
Wataru Koki Kitayama-Kota Tatsu-Hiroya Shimamoto-Mizuki Hori

Text by Ayako Kikuchi