HILO, Hawai`i--Visiting Chuo University of Japan scored five runs in the first inning and made that lead stand up for a 7-3 exhibition game win over Hawai`i Hilo on Tuesday night at Wong Stadium. 

Chuo, who won the collegiate baseball title in Japan last year, scored those five runs with five hits and one UHH error in front of 933 fans at Wong Stadium. The two teams will play again tomorrow night at 6 pm.

Chuo Ryohei Nagashima hit a two-run double in the first inning and a few batters later catcher Ryo Chiba laced a two-run single to put the team from Japan up 5-0. That's where the score stayed until the fifth inning.

Takeru Watanabe pitched the first four innings for Chuo and did not give up a hit. The Vulcans finally got into the hit column in the fifth inning when Kyle Yamada led off with a single, Reese Kato followed with a bunt hit and Philip Steering blooped a hit into centerfield. A balk then brought home UHH's first run of the game.

Chuo added two more runs in the seventh inning, both of them unearned, to take a 7-1 lead. But the Vulcans battled back with a run in the seventh and another in the eighth. In the seventh, Austin Forney drove in a unearned run with a single, and in the eighth Yamada ripped a triple down the rightfield line to drive in another run to make it 7-3.

Yamada, the lead-off hitter, finished 2-for-3 with two walks, a run scored and a triple. Chiba went 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI to lead Chuo. 

On the mound, freshman Dylan Spain pitched three innings, gave up just one hit, no runs and fanned two. The lefty pitched the third, fourth and fifth innings.

Chuo had nine hits in the game and just one error, while the Vulcans had eight hits but had five errors on the defensive side.

After tomorrow's exhibition game, the Vulcans will get ready to open Pacific West Conference play with four-game series against Hawaii Pacific on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's doubleheader will start at 4 pm.