Cardinals better Challengers 7-4

The Challengers and Bern Cardinals played two meaningless games on Saturday as they made up May 9's postponed doubleheader.

	Thomas Landis lost his third consecutive start and is now 3-3 on the season.

It were the last two games of the Preeliminary Round, but with identical 7-3 records, both teams already secured a berth for the Qualification Round, starting next weekend.

But both teams played for prestige and played for first place in the Preeliminary Round.

It mattered more to the Cardinals, as it seemed, because the Challengers never really got into a groove and were held to only three hits.

The Cards batted around in the third inning and took a 4-0 lead off Thomas Landis.

Christoph Beyeler, Sandro Negro and Vitus Huber hit singles and playing coach Jose Castillo had an RBI-double in that inning.

Catcher Nick Lehmann also had a passed ball, and right fielder Chris Hardy misplayed Marco Haas' fly ball and dropped it for an error.

The Challengers got two runs back in the next two innings on playing coach Jorge Bazan's RBI-single and Anubis Benitez' RBI-double off Beyeler.

But the Cards regrouped and pulled away by scoring three runs total in the fifth and sixth innings.

	Anubis Benitez was the only Challenger with more than one hit, going 2-for-4 with a double and a single.

Landis (3-3) again lacked his control and had a total of five walks and a hit-by-pitch. He also gave up seven hits that led to a total of five earned runs.

For the first time in nine seasons, Landis lost three straight starts to drop his record to 3-3.

His last win dates back to May 16 when he beat the Zürich Barracudas 11-2 with a five-hitter.

Game notes
The last time Landis lost three straight starts was in 1996 when he lost twice against the Zürich Barracudas and twice against the Zürich Coconuts from June 1 to July 7, 1996. He finished with a 3-5 record that year. ...Benitez has 54 hits against the Cardinals in his career as a Challenger, the most against any opponent.