Challengers 10, Frogs 9

The Challengers held off a late rally by the Frogs to prevail in Game 3 of this year's Playoff Semifinals to advance to the Finals for the first time since 1994.

Thomas Landis>

Thomas Landis earned his league-leading 9th win of the season and also went 3-for-5 at the plate, including his team-leading 7th homer of the season.

The Challengers took an early lead on Roger Brunner's three-run homer in the bottom of the second, and added one more on Brunner's RBI-single an inning later.

Thomas Landis, making his 11th start of the year, allowed just three baserunners in the first three innings, before he was tagged for two unearned runs in the fourth. Anubis Benitez' threw wide off first base that allowed Daniel Traina to score from second base, and Peter Rüfenacht scored while his brother Markus got caught in a rundown.

Reliever Steve Klee gave up five runs on five hits in one inning of relief.

The Challengers sent nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and chased reliever Steve Klee after just one inning of relief. Saentis Zeller scored on Landis' ground out, and Gary Kochlefl scored on a passed ball by catcher Philip Lehmann. Jose Valdez followed with his fifth homer of the season, and after back-to-back doubles by Benitez and Andreas Mathis, the Frogs brought on Peter Rüfenacht to relieve Steve Klee.

The Challengers scored one more run in that inning on a double steal by Mathis and Brunner and the score was 9-2 after just four innings.

The Forgs got two runs back in the top of the fifth on yet another double steal, and Daniel Traina's RBI-single.

Roger Brunner collected the first four RBI's of the game with a three-run dinger in the second and an RBI-single in the third inning.

Catcher Bryan Shemley led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, but was then caught stealing second. Shemley, unhappy with the call by second base umpire Francisco Pablos, appeared to say something to the umpire and promptly got ejected.

After that, Nick Lehmann took over for Shemley behind the plate, Joe Cox came in for Kochlefl, Patrick Bosshard replaced Brunner in left, and Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer went into right field.

After Landis (9-2) retired the side in the top of the sixth, he led of the bottom half of the inning with his team-leading seventh homer of the season.

After Benitez got on on a throwing error by third baseman Daniel Traina, Peter Rüfenacht retired the last seven batters he faced in order.

Meanwhile, his team crept closer run by run, and scored four times in the seventh inning.

Landis started that inning by giving up three singles and a base-on-balls to the first four batters that cut the Challengers' lead to 10-6.

Valdez relieved Landis and retired Lüthy on a run-scoring ground out. After a fielder's choice by Markus Rüfenacht, Valdez issued a walk to Steve Klee to put runners on second and first with two outs. Mike Klee layed down a grounder to shortstop Zeller who flipped the ball to Cox. But Cox dropped the ball to enable one more Frog run to score that cut the lead to 10-8. Valdez managed to escape the jam by retiring Philip Lehmann on a ground out for the third out.

The Challengers huddle after the game to celebrate their first Finals berth in four years.

After getting helped by a double play in the eighth inning, Valdez drilled Peter Rüfenacht with a pitch to start off the ninth.

Steve Lüthy followed with a big double to put the tying run in scoring position.

Markus Rüfenacht's ground out to shortstop Zeller brought home his brother Peter, and suddenly, it was a one-run game.

Lüthy, still on second base with the tying run, tried to steal third base, but was easily thrown out by catcher Nick Lehmann for the second out of the inning.

Steve Klee grounded out to shortstop Zeller for the final out that made the Challengers' first Finals appearance since 1994 perfect.

With three innings of relief, Valdez earned his third save of the year.