The Heisei Era in Japan is set to end when Emperor Akihito abdicates next year on April 30.

Pinning down the end of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks’ current era of dominance in Japanese baseball is going to take a little bit more time.

Because as they showed during this Japan Series, their grip on the throne is as strong as ever.

Rick van den Hurk shut out the Hiroshima Carp for six innings and the Hawks scored runs on a squeeze bunt and a home run to capture another Japan Series title with a 2-0 win over the Carp in Game 6 in front of a crowd of 30,723 at Mazda Stadium on Saturday night.

The Hawks poured out of the dugout after closer Yuito Mori retired Seiya Suzuki to end the game. They celebrated on the mound and tossed manager Kimiyasu Kudo into the air 15 times during the doage celebration.

“It felt great and it made me happy,” Kudo said. “Our players have been working relentlessly since the end of the season.”

Hiroshima native Yuki Yanagita, who won Game 5 with a sayonara home run, was the next to go airborne.

“I’m just really, really happy,” Yanagita said. “That was my first time (getting a doage toss) since I was drafted.”Catcher Takuya Kai, who threw out all six runners who tried to steal bases, a Japan Series record for consecutive runners thrown out, was named MVP of the series.

The victory gives the Hawks their second consecutive Japan Series title and their fourth in the last five seasons and fifth in the last eight. The franchise will go down as the final champion of the Heisei Era (which began Jan. 8, 1989), with its seventh crown during that period.

“It’s a winning franchise,” Van den Hurk said. “That’s what the mindset is here with everything. That’s something I’m very grateful to be part of and very happy that we did it again.”

They won this title after finishing second in the Pacific League, an unfamiliar position for the club in recent years.

“We all play with the same rules and you can win the title as the second-place team,” first baseman Seiichi Uchikawa said.

The Hawks played the Carp to a tie in Game 1 and lost Game 2. They then closed out the series by reeling off four straight wins, including all three at home.

“Hiroshima is a tough team and my heart was always pounding with worry,” Kudo said. “This is the first time we’ve won coming out of second place (in the Pacific League) and we tried to do the best we could do and win the Japan Series. We played with that mindset.”

Tetsuro Nishida drove in SoftBank’s first run with a squeeze bunt in the fourth and Yurisbel Gracial added to the lead with a solo homer in the fifth. Van den Hurk, relievers Shota Takeda and Shinya Kayama and Mori did the rest, limiting Hiroshima to just four hits.

“Johnson is a great pitcher and we had a hard time scoring against him,” Gracial said, referring to Carp starter Kris Johnson. “So it felt great to be able to contribute with my bat.”

For the Carp, it was more disappointment. The club has won the past three Central League pennants but has failed to finish any of those years off with a Japan Series title.

“Our players gave their best until the very end,” Carp manager Koichi Ogata said. “We had a very good chance to win.”

The Carp went down the same way they did in 2016 against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters — by losing all three road games and then falling at home in Game 6.

Van den Hurk was the loser in Game 2 in Hiroshima and came back with a vengeance on Saturday night. The Dutch right-hander retired seven straight at one point and struck out 10 while allowing only three hits and a walk.

“I was looking forward to putting the team in a position to win and I was able to do that,” he said. “When you go up against the Carp lineup and Johnson on the mound, there not much room for error. In a tight game, we were able to continue to pitch well and we did that the whole game.

“That was great and obviously when you when the championship, that’s amazing.”

Kai, meanwhile, kept the running game of the Carp, who led the CL with 95 stolen bases, in check with his powerful and accurate right arm, which has been dubbed the “Kai Cannon.”

Kai threw himself into the record books in the first inning when he threw out Kosuke Tanaka trying to steal second for his fifth straight runner thrown out, which set a Japan Series record. Kai improved to 6-for-6 in the series when he threw out Tomohiro Abe in the second.

With Van den Hurk and Johnson, pitchers whose time in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization overlapped briefly, controlling things on the mound, the game was scoreless entering the fourth.

Yanagita drew a walk to start the frame and Akira Nakamura followed with a single. Uchikawa laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners over and Nishida dropped down a squeeze to make the score 1-0.

Gracial added to the lead in the fifth, connecting on a slider for a solo homer to left.

Pitching with the lead seemed to put a charge into Van den Hurk, who struck out seven between the fourth and sixth innings.

The bullpen took over from Van den Hurk to begin the seventh and pitched the Hawks to the title.

The game was the last for celebrated Carp star Takahiro Arai, who will retire.

Johnson, who was the winner in Game 2, took the loss in Game 6. The left-hander allowed two runs on three hits in six innings. Johnson struck out six and walked three.

Staff writer Kaz Nagatsuka contributed to this report</s>TOKYO, Nov 3 (Reuters) - The Fukuoka Hawks defeated Hiroshima Carp 2-0 in the sixth game of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Japan Series on Saturday to retain the title with a 4-1-1 series win.

Dutch pitcher Rick van den Hurk struck out 10 Carp players in six innings and Cuban Yurisbel Gracial hit a home run in the fifth on the way to victory.

Closing pitcher Yuito Mori secured three straight outs in the ninth innings to wrap up the win.

The Hawks clinched the best-of-seven series title with their fourth win on the spin, following a tie in the opening game of the series and a 5-1 victory for the Carp in the second.

It is the ninth time the Hawks have won the Japan Series and the fourth time in the past five seasons.

The result marks another crushing disappointing for the Carp, who topped the Central League regular season standings with .582 winning percentage.

Hiroshima have not won the title since 1984 and have now lost in the Japan Series five times. (Reporting by Jack Tarrant; Editing by Ken Ferris)</s>The following story is a collaborative news effort between The Montclarion and The Whit.

Original article written by Adam Grassani of The Montclarion.

The 2018 Men’s Soccer New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Tournament held its semifinal matchup Tuesday night at Montclair State University’s own MSU Soccer Park. On their home field, the first seed Montclair State Red Hawks got a win over the fourth seed Rowan University Profs 4-3. The former punched their ticket to the championship game and eliminated the latter from the NJAC Tournament for the third straight time.

The Red Hawks’ head coach Todd Tumelty understood the pressure that comes with being the top seed in the tournament.

“I think we always know that people are gunning for us, and I think the success that we’ve had over the last few years makes teams want to really beat us,” Tumelty said. “I always tell the guys, ‘You’re everyone’s number one game,’ and it’s tough to play when you’re everyone’s number one game.'”

The game began with Rowan getting on the offensive early as Vincent Guzzo got the first shot on goal of the game just 1:40 in. Rowan would control possession of the ball throughout the majority of the first 19 minutes of the game, keeping the ball away from their net and on the other side of the field. Throughout those first 19 minutes, the Profs outshot the Red Hawks 6-3, three of those coming during a minute-long offensive buzz 18 minutes into the game.

At this point in the game, everyone expected Rowan to be the team that would score first. The Red Hawks’ senior forward Rafael Terci had other ideas. While Rowan was on the offensive surge previously mentioned, the Red Hawks broke up a scoring chance and took the ball all the way downfield leading to the first goal of the game by Terci unassisted. Terci was then seen celebrating with his friend in the crowd after giving Montclair State the early 1-0 lead 19:21 into the game.

“He mishit it, I guess, and it came to me and I just touched it in,” Terci said. “I told my friend before the game if I score to make sure he’s on the fence so I just ran over to him and we celebrated together.”

It would not take long for Rowan to capitalize on the momentum they generated earlier in the game as they would tie the game up when Ryan Campbell, the leading scorer on the team and second in NJAC for goals and points, was awarded with a penalty shot at 30:14.

Campbell fired a perfect shot to the upper left corner of the net, completely out of the reach of Montclair State Goalkeeper Mike Saalfrank, giving his team their first goal of the game to tie it 1-1.

Rowan’s lead did not last long. Montclair State ended up tying the game with a penalty shot of their own from Chaz Burnett. Burnett would fire his shot to the lower left corner of the net. Profs’ goalkeeper Kyle Dennis appeared to get a piece of it but not enough as it went into the net to give Montclair State the 2-1 lead 31:00 in, and ultimately into halftime.

In the second half, the Red Hawks would ultimately put their stamp on this game. At 50:09, Jake Seaman would control a rebound from Dennis and fire one low and in to extend the Red Hawks lead to 3-1. Just over four minutes later, Burnett would score his second of the game off an assist from Jose Huerta to make it 4-1 Montclair State with 35:35 left.

However, the game was not over for the Rowan University Profs, not by a long shot. In the final 10 minutes of the game, Rowan would score twice. The first came from Shane Doherty, as he touched one in that slipped past Saalfrank. Kevin Pereira was credited with the assist. The second came once again from Ryan Campbell as he scored his second of the game off an assist from Primich to cut the Red Hawks lead down to 4-3.

Rowan would get one last chance to tie it with less than a minute to go when Pereira fired a decent shot. However, it was saved by Saalfrank, who punted it away, allowing Montclair State to barely hold on for the win.

“It’s not the way we wanted it to end, and we were hoping that we’d lock down and keep our defensive unit good,” Tumelty said. “We made some mistakes, and as the season gets on and goes on more and more, if you make mistakes, they’re going to come back and cost you. So that’s something we can take away and learn from today.”

Despite the loss, the Profs are not hanging their heads. Not only did they nearly mount a comeback against the No. 7 ranked team in Division III, they outplayed Montclair State in several areas. The Profs outshot the Red Hawks 20-19 and dominated in corner kicks 10-2.

Rowan head coach Scott Baker was not discouraged by losing to the first seed in the tournament, and was proud of the way his team fought and came back.

“Montclair’s a great team, great opponent, tough to beat at home,” Baker said. “I think we fought hard. We came back.”

Baker continually mentioned how difficult it was to be the opponent in the away field.

“We came back from a tremendous defect, especially on an away field with such a tough opponent and obviously it didn’t go our way,” Baker said. “The calls didn’t go our way and we couldn’t catch a break late in the game.”

The Red Hawks defeated second-seeded Ramapo College in the NJAC Championship Final, 5-0, to win their seventh conference title in the last 13 seasons. Montclair also earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men’s Soccer Championship.</s>Hawks Take Down Lumberjacks to Claim 7AAAA Title

DULUTH, Minn.- Hermantown is the new section 7AAAA football title holder after defeating defending champions Cloquet 20-14.

The Hawks attacked first with a touchdown in the first few minutes of the game. But soon after the Lumberjacks would respond with a 7 yard touchdown from Andre Peters to tie up the game. Heading into halftime Cloquet held the lead 14-12 but in the second half the Hawks staged a comeback while holding the Lumberjacks to those two touchdowns.

Hermantown is now the section 7AAAA champion and is headed to the state tournament.</s>The Mouat Hawks celebrate a big win on Saturday to qualify for the playoffs. (Ben Lypka/Abbotsford News)

The W.J. Mouat Hawks faced a win and you’re in situation on Saturday afternoon at Latham Field.

The only way the Hawks could guarantee one of two available playoff spots in the AAA’s Pacific conference was to defeat the West Vancouver Highlanders, and they did just that – winning 25-6 to finish an impressive 7-1 in regular season play.

Mouat was led by, as they have been most of the season, by its two excellent running backs Ebiye Okoko and Nathan Hausermann. Okoko collected 120 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns, while Hausermann added 57 yards on the ground and one touchdown. Hausermann also returned a kick 80 yards to score a special teams major.

Zack Badke led the way defensively with five tackles, while Everett Carter caught a late interception.

The touchdown Mouat allowed was the first major they have allowed on home field since Sept. 7. The Hawks only allowed 12 points in five home games this season.

Mouat now takes on the Notre Dame Jugglers in round one of the playoffs, and face a familiar foe in former Hawks head coach Dennis Kelly.

Kelly was the head coach of the Mouat senior varsity program from 1987 to 2014, and helped lead the club to three provincial championships. He left to join the SFU Clan for that club’s offensive coordinator position in 2015, and then took over as head coach at Notre Dame in 2017.

The time, date and location of the Hawks and Jugglers playoff game is still to be determined.

Read Wednesday’s print edition of the Abbotsford News for more.
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks defeat the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to win the 2018 Japan Series.