The return of professional baseball in Hawai'i had an international flair for the Waikiki BeachBoys.

Four pitchers from three nations collaborated on a two-hitter as the BeachBoys hooked the Honolulu Sharks, 4-0, yesterday in a season opener of Hawaii Winter Baseball.

A Les Murakami Stadium crowd of 1,595 watched the revival of HWB, which played from 1993 to 1997.

"It was a good crowd considering it's football season," Waikiki manager Lenn Sakata said. "This is pretty good baseball. We have some good players here and they're extremely young. That's what's amazing."

Lost in translation was the Sharks' bats, as Japan's Atsushi Nohmi, Netherlands-born Rick Vanden Hurk, Japan's Kazuya Tsutsui and American Brian Anderson combined to allow just four base runners. Eric Campbell's two-out, first-inning double to center was the farthest advancement of a Honolulu base runner.

"We swung the bats pretty well early in the game," Sharks manager Gary Kendall said. "But their bullpen was really effective later in the game. We just couldn't do much offensively with their bullpen."

The left-handed Nohmi started, going four innings, allowing both hits and one walk. The other hit he allowed was a single by Nyjer Morgan on a liner just off diving shortstop Chris Nelson's glove. Morgan was erased when catcher Jeff Clement, the third-overall pick in 2005 by Seattle, threw him out on a steal attempt.

Nohmi (Hanshin Tigers) was helped by center fielder Dexter Fowler, who hauled in two deep flies to the wall.

"It wasn't too difficult," said Fowler, who led the BeachBoys by batting 3 for 4 with two RBIs. "The ball hangs up there a while, so that's good."

The right-handed Vanden Hurk (1-0) followed with two perfect innings, striking out three. The southpaw Tsutsui added two innings, allowing a walk to Eric Nielsen, only to have him vanish when Van Pope grounded to shortstop for an inning-ending double play. Anderson, a right-hander, pitched a perfect ninth, striking out Masaya Ozaki to end the game.

The BeachBoys did the bulk of their damage in the fifth against Wardell Starling (0-1). After Kanehisa Arime's four scoreless innings of three-hit ball and three strikeouts, Starling was hit for three runs, one unearned. Back-to-back singles by Reed Eastley and Nelson were followed by a walk to Sebastien Boucher to load the bases. After Eric Young Jr. struck out, Fowler's infield single to short broke the scoreless deadlock, making it 1-0 and reloading the bases. Starling appeared he would escape with minimal damage, but second baseman Campbell's fielding error on what might have been a double play grounder by Grant Psomas allowed two runs to score.

"Starling had pretty good stuff, but he elevated some balls early," Kendall said. "He made a great pitch to get that ground ball. He could've minimized some damage (if it weren't for the error.)."

The BeachBoys only managed a run off the next three Sharks relievers, scoring in the seventh against Scott Roehl. Boucher led off with a walk, one out later took second on a wild pitch and scored on Fowler's flare single to left just inside the foul line to make it 4-0. Kazumasa Kikuchi and Justin Vaclavik each threw a perfect inning.

Sakata, a Kalani High graduate who manages the San Francisco Giants' High-A club in San Jose, was pleased with what he saw in the opener.

"Both sides, the pitching was good," Sakata said. "I was impressed with our center fielder (Fowler), Vanden Hurk and (Anderson) who closed the game out. I saw him all year, he's my closer (at San Jose). Considering the layoff for most of these guys, it was a pretty good game."

Most players have been off for about a month with their minor league seasons ending in early September.

"I was very pleased," Kendall said of his team's effort. "They hustled and they worked hard. Each game we're looking for improvement."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.