Wicki, Helvetics k.o. weak Challengers

The Challengers travelled with a weakened line-up to Uzwil last Saturday, as pitcher Oliver Labhart helped out at the NLA's matchup with the Zürich Barracudas, while lead-off Manuel Schretzmann and slugger Chris Hardy were called up by GM Chris Palatinus for the rest of the season.

	Thomas Blank was the only Challenger with more than one hit.

But Uzwil Helvetics' veteran pitcher Remo Wicki showed no mercy as he dominated the opponent for a complete game. Wicki gave up seven hits and only one base on balls, not earning any of the three runs scored.

He fanned a total of 12 batters, leaving with Willy Schaub and Adrian Kämpfer">Adrian Kämpfer only the very core of the Challengers line-up stainless.

With this performance, Wicki easily outduelled Schaub who didn't pick his best day in his seventh outing of the season.

He gave up 11 walks and earned 12 of the 20 runs scored.

Nevertheless, he provided solid pitching for four innnings, but was not backed up well by his defense.

After a blank first inning, five errors let the Helvetics pull away 8-0 in the second frame.

The Challengers got back two in the following inning when Helvetic center fielder Patrick Wicki couldn't handle Kämpfer's high pop-up with men on second and third.

	Willy Schaub was roughed up for 12 earned runs en route to his fourth defeat of the season.

Rodolfo Batista's misjudgement of a fly ball with two outs then allowed another Helvetics runner to get on and score on the follow-up double.

In the nil-nil fourth inning, rookie second baseman Gerry Obeng showed some brilliance when he turned a double play almost by himself.

Asked why he tagged the oncoming runner instead of throwing to second he replied: I was afraid of throwing the ball away.

The Challengers' fate was then sealed in the fifth and sixth innings when Schaub started to crack.

In both innings he walked the first two batters, which all eventually scored on their teammates' hits.

After giving up his second homer of the day, Schaub left the rubber to Kämpfer for the last out.

In a quiet offense, Batista and Thomas Blank were the only Challengers to set marks.

Blank as the only Challenger with multiple hits went 3-for-4 with two huge shots over the left field fence for doubles, but no other benefit than one single run, while Batista recorded the only Challenger RBI with his ground-rule double.

Game notes
Tossing the last out for his team was Kämpfer's pitching debut, more than ten years after starting his career.