Lions suffer worst loss of season, lose 33-4

The Challengers scored 33 runs in five innings to finish off a helpless Lions team 33-4 in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader at the Heerenschürli.

	Roger Brunner hit three homers in the first three innings for the first time in his career.

The Challengers offense clicked on all cylinders as the team combined for a season-high 28 hits, the most since getting 30 hits in Game 1 of last year's Playoff Semifinals against the Bern Cardinals in a 33-11 rout.

Manny Marchant and Roger Brunner led the offense as both went 5-for-6, including seven RBI's each.

Three of Brunner's hits were homers in the first, second and third innings, achieving this feat for the first time in his career.

Marchant's homer in the 3rd inning was his first this season, and it accounted for his 100th run in his four-year NLA-career.

	Chris Palatinus' triple was the first for a Challenger in three years.

Jose Valdez was the third Challenger to collect seven RBI's in a 4-for-6 performance, including two homers in the fourth inning. His second homer put him in 3rd place on the Challengers' alltime RBI list with 180, passing Adris Linares who collected 179 RBI's in his four years with the team. And he set yet another career milestone as he hit his 50th NLA double in his 400th at-bat with the Challengers in the 2nd inning.

Shortstop Patrick Zöllig rounded out the homerun feast by hitting his first career NLA homer in the top of the second inning.

Chris Palatinus didn't homer, but he hit the first triple by a Challenger in over three years. The last Challenger to hit a triple was Saentis Zeller who did it on May 10, 1998 against the Embrach Rainbows. Palatinus hit his only other triple on Opening Day 1997 against the Therwil Flyers and is now the only active Challenger with two triples.

	Thor Thoresen had a solid 4-for-5 day with four RBI's, four runs scored and two stolen bases.

This offensive output overshawdoved Benny Räber's performance on the mound as he pitched four innings to pick up his sixth win of the year, giving up four runs - one of them unearned - on five hits and three walks, and also striking out nine.

Game notes
Palatinus scored his 200th run in the NLA as he crossed the plate on Valdez' three-run homer in the fourth inning, putting him in 3rd place on the Challengers' alltime list. ...Räber started the game by striking out Giorgio Szentgyörgyi for his 200th strikeout of his NLA-career.