Akihito Fujii and Katsumi Yamashita both homered off Hiroki Sanada as the the newly formed Rakuten Eagles beat the Yomiuri Giants 4-3 in a preseason opener on Saturday.
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles rookie hurler Yasuhiro Ichiba delivers a pitch during their preseason game against the Yomiuri Giants on Saturday at Oita Stadium. The Eagles won 4-3 in their professional baseball debut.
Yoshinobu Takahashi homered over the left-field fence off Rakuten rookie Yasuhiro Ichiba to make it 2-0 for host Yomiuri in the third inning as light snow fell at Shin-Oita Stadium, but the home runs from Fujii and Yamashita, who drove in three runs between them, saw the new boys home in front of a sellout crowd of 13,700.
The two scheduled games between the Chunichi Dragons and the Yokohama BayStars, and the Yakult Swallows and the Nippon Ham Fighters, both in Okinawa Prefecture, were rained out.