It was hard for Hiroki Kokubo to forget last year’s Japan Series, when his heavily favored Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks were upset by the upstart Yokohama DeNA BayStars.
For about two months afterward, the Hawks manager would often run into fans who either offered words of condolence, expressed their shared disappointment or encouraged Kokubo to fight again next year. He carried the feelings from those encounters with him into spring camp, during the team’s rocky start to the season and throughout the year — all the way to the 11th inning in Game 5 of the Japan Series.
That was when Isami Nomura broke a tie with a solo home run to help the Hawks finish the job this time with a Japan Series-clinching 3-2 win over the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien Stadium on Thursday night.
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