Challengers lose opener 21-1 to Frogs

Harsh weather conditions accompanied the Challengers' NLB-team season-opener in Sissach against the Frogs.

	Orlando Balbuena

And the Challengers were quickly shellbombed by the Frogs' offense that scored 11 runs in the bottom of the first inning to put the game away early on.

Starter Tobias Siegrist struggled from the start on as he already left after facing just 14 batters. 11 of those batters crossed the plate for six earned runs and Siegrist managed to record just two outs before rookie Orlando Balbuena took over, and pitched the next two innings.

Meanwhile, Frogs starter Steve Klee limited the Challengers to two hits in the second inning, one of them the Challengers only run-scoring hit, an RBI-double by Balbuena.

Klee just surrendered one more hit, Manuel Schretzmann's single to lead off the fifth inning. Klee finished with just one walk given up and 11 strikeouts.

Balbuena was relieved in the third inning by yet another rookie, Beni Blank. He pitched two innings, giving up only two runs - one of them earned - on two hits and one walk, also striking out one.

But the game was called after five innings due to the double-mercy rule of 20 runs difference after five innings. It was the most loopsided defeat of a Challenger squad since the Lions' 20-2 win on August 28, 1999.