Three straight two-out, eighth-inning doubles by Haruki Nishikawa, Taishi Ota and Kensuke Konda lifted the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters to a 4-2 win in Sunday's Game 2 of the Pacific League Climax Series' first stage against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
The Fighters now are a win away from advancing to the final stage against the PL champion Seibu Lions for the right to play in the Japan Series. The Hawks, who host the first stage by virtue of finishing ahead of the Fighters in the regular season, can advance with either a win or a tie in Monday's Game 3.
After the Hawks tied the game 2-2 on Tomoki Takata's seventh-inning RBI single, Fighters leadoff man Nishikawa got things rolling against reliever Ren Kajiya (0-1). The left-handed sparkplug golfed a low 0-1 fastball to the gap in right that nearly cleared the low wall in front of the outfield field seats.