Challengers 13, Barracudas 8

The Challengers again rallied and won Game 2 of this year's Finals 13-8 to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Benny Räber>

Benny Räber picked up his sixth win of the season by pitching 6 2-3 innings and allowing only three earned runs.

As in Game 1, the Barracudas scored in the first inning, this time twice on two errors, one by center fielder Thomas Landis who misplayed a grounder, and one by third baseman Anubis Benitez who couldn't handle Nderim Coma's grounder.

The Challengers weren't able to score against starter Farid Bekkali although in every inning, the leadoff batter got on base.

But in the fourth, newly-acquired Manny Marchant from the Domnican Republic and his country-man Jose Valdez led off with back-to-back singles, and Bekkali loaded the bases by issuing a base-on-balls to Andreas Mathis.

Thomas Landis went 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base.

Anubis Benitez hit a sacrifice fly to center field and Roger Brunner followed with a two-run double. Bryan Shemley added an RBI-single to put the Challengers up 4-2 after 3 1/2 innings.

The Barracudas came back in the bottom of the fifth and tied the game on Francois Riva's two-run double, one of four hits for him in the game.

No team scored in the fifth before the Challengers put three more runs on the board in the seventh. With two outs, Valdez hit an RBI-double and Mathis plated him with his first homer of the season for a 7-4 lead.

Challenger starter Benny Räber retired the first two Barracudas in the bottom of the seventh before Francois Riva ripped his second double of the game, and Marchant relieved Räber. Räber (6-2) finished with five runs - two of them unearned - given up in 6 2-3 innings of work, striking out five and allowing six hits and five walks.

Gary Kochlefl>

Gary Kochlefl scored his team-leading 36th run of the year and also hit a crucial single in the eighth inning.

After Riva's double, player-manager Dave Sekac reached on Benitez' second error of the game, and Marchant filled the bases by issuing a walk to Marc Riva.

Manager Marvin Moore lifted Marchant to bring on his closer Jose Valdez. Valdez already had a league-leading three saves on the season before the game. But he started by giving up another walk to Sandro Giambonini that forced in a run to cut the Challengers' lead to two. He then induced Coma to hit into an inning-ending groundout to shortstop Saentis Zeller.

The two teams went into the seventh inning, with the Challengers holding on to a slim 7-5 lead.

That wasn't enough they thought and put six runs on the board. Zeller and Landis had RBI-singles, Valdez hit a two-run shot, and Benitez added an RBI-double, his league-leading 17th of the season. One more run scored on a succesful double-steal.

Player-Manager Dave Sekac wasn't able to help his offense.

By the end of the top of the seventh, the Challengers had a comfortable 13-5 lead.

Valdez gave up three more runs - two of them unearned - in the final two innings, but thanks to the big lead, he collected his team-record 4th save of the season.

With the loss, the Barracudas are forced to win the next three games if they want to successfully defend their Championship Title.

Bekkali lost his second consecutive Finals decision after winning his previous five starts.

Benitez' 17 doubles shattered the previous Challenger team record of 12, set back in 1996 by Zeller.

Valdez finished with four hits in five at-bats, raising his average to .481.