Hawks fly past Tigers

NISHINOMIYA, Hyogo Pref. – Toshiya Sugiuchi stretched his personal winning streak to three games Tuesday when he pitched his second complete game shutout of the season to lift the Softbank Hawks over the Hanshin Tigers 2-0 in interleague play.

Nippon Ham catcher Kazunari Samematsu forces out Yomiuri baserunner Tomohiro Nioka at the
plate in the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game at Sapporo Dome.

Sugiuchi (8-1), who was tagged with his only loss on May 10 despite going the distance, struck out 10 and threw a two-hitter in his fifth complete game effort to outduel Naohisa Sugiyama (2-4), who fanned seven and was no less impressive with two runs and five hits through the eighth at Koshien Stadium.

One out after Nobuhiko Matsunaka led off the seventh with a walk, Julio Zuleta broke a scoreless deadlock with a two-run drive — his 16th homer this season. The Tigers failed to win their third straight as their attack lacked firework.

Carp 4, Marines 1

At Chiba Marine Stadium, Tomonori Maeda homered off Soichi Fujita (1-1) for the go-ahead run and Hiroshima rallied for two more runs on a Yoshikazu Kura squeeze bunt and a Shigeru Morikasa single in a three-run, eighth-inning rally in a triumph against Lotte.

Swallows 3, Buffaloes 2

At Osaka Dome, Yakult scored the game-tying run on a wild pitch by Kevin Beirne (1-7) in the second inning before Akinori Iwamura and Noriyuki Shiroishi drove in a run apiece, sending Orix home with its first loss in four games.

BayStars 6, Eagles 2

At Yokohama Stadium, Hitoshi Tamura hit a game-tying solo shot for his 11th homer this month and Shuichi Murata followed with an RBI single in a two-run fourth inning as the BayStars came from behind to defeat Rakuten.

Dragons 2, Lions 1

At Nagoya Dome, Daisuke Matsuzaka (4-6) issued three straight walks with none out in the fifth inning, and Chunichi took advantage of the situation to score two runs on a Masahiro Araki single and a Kazuyoshi Tatsunami bases-loaded walk in a victory over Seibu.

Fighters 4, Giants 4 (12)

At Sapporo Dome, Fernando Seguignol hit a game-tying solo homer off Yomiuri starter Koji Uehara in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Fighters and Giants played out a tied game.

Uehara became the 115th pitcher in Japan pro baseball history to achieve 1,000 career strikeouts.

Waseda bags title

Waseda University defeated Keio University 4-1 to capture their first Tokyo Big Six League title in three years by topping the standings with a maximum five points on Tuesday.

The victory was Waseda’s 37th overall and secures the university a spot in the six-day national collegiate championship, which gets under way June 7 at Jingu Stadium and Tokyo Dome.