Baseball: Team effort lifts Hawks into 1st place with win over Lions

Contributions up and down the batting order and from five relief pitchers boosted the SoftBank Hawks into first place in the Pacific League on Sunday with a 9-3 win over the Seibu Lions.

Entering their game at Saitama Prefecture’s Belluna Dome just outside Tokyo, the Hawks overcame a 3-2 deficit to pull a half-game ahead of the two-time defending champion Orix Buffaloes, who fell 6-3 to the Nippon Ham Fighters.

Isami Nomura hit a second-inning two-run homer off Lions lefty Chihiro Sumida (3-7), who surrendered four runs over five innings.

“I was only thinking about putting good swings on the b...