Rick van den Hurk starts with no decision

Contrary to what I wrote a few weeks ago about Rick van den Hurk getting the third spot in the rotation of the Hawks, Rick started the second game of the Hawks in the young season.

Rick could not duplicate his first start of last year in the NPB as he got a no dicision in the second game of the series between the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.

In Tohoku, the Eagles took a 1-0 in the third inning as Van den Hurk gave up a triple to Kazuya Fujita, who was driven in by Takeru Okajima on a sacricice fly.

The Hawks on their turn answered immediately as they scored two runs in the top of the fourth. Seichi Uchikawa drew a lead off walk, followed by hit to right field by Barbaro Canizares. With one out both Akira Nakamura and Kenta Imamiya singled to drive in a run each. In the next inning the Hawks scored another run when Canizares hit a single to left field to drive in Yuki Yanagita.

Rick van den Hurk cruised through the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh inning in which he struck out four hitters, but he hit a snag in the eighth as he gave up a hit to left field that drove in two runs.

After the eighth Rick was pulled after throwing 118 pitches. He struck out a total of six batters, walked two and gave up three earned runs on four hits for the no decision.

After twelve innings the game was called as it was still tied at three, leaving the Softbank Hawks without a win in their first two starts.