The Challengers climbed over .500 for the first time this season, as they posted a 6-4 win over the Zurich Barracudas on Thursday night, June 26.
Vanessa Zulliger broke a sixth-inning tie with an RBI-groundout, as the C’s won their fifth straight. Andrea Wirth hit a two-run double, Simone Zurschmitten finished 2-for-3, while Simona Cellar scored twice for the blue and red.
The Challengers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the opening inning on a RBI-double by Zurschmitten, but the Barracudas answered with a run of their own in the second frame to tie the game at 1-1. And the Barracudas added two more runs in the third inning on three errors by the Challengers defense and a RBI-single by Stephanie Reid.
The C’s regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Back-to-back singles brought Cellar on third base and she crossed the plate on Alexia Zingg’s RBI-single. Then Leandra Simitovic reached on base-on-balls to load the bases for Wirth, who delivered a two-run double to make it 4-3. The Barracudas tied the game again in the fifth, before the C’s took the lead for good in the sixth, as Zulliger drove in Zurschmitten and Ziegylou Wehrli scored on a throwing error by the Barracudas defense that made it 6-4.
Karen Heimgartner allowed four unearned runs and four hits with ten strikeouts for the win, while Corina Grass allowed six runs – five earned – on seven hits and four walks, while also striking out five.