Challengers prevail in season opener 10-8

The Challengers opened their quest of taking their third national title in a row by outlasting the Bern Cardinals 10-8 in game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader.

	Nick Lehmann went 2-for-4 at the plate.

Benny Räber picked up his first win of the season by tossing 5 2-3 innings, giving up five earned runs on five hits and four walks, striking out two batters. Manny Marchant pitched the final 1 1-3 innings, giving up no earned runs that earned him the first save of the season.

The Challengers opened the scoring in the second inning on Chris Palatinus' sac fly to right that scored Jose Valdez from third base.

But the Cardinals knotted the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the third when Räber loaded the bases with three consecutive hit by pitches, and a wild pitch that brought in Kusano from third base.

The Challengers went ahead in the fourth inning on Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer's RBI-double with two outs.

	Severin Fries started strong but gave it up in the fifth inning when he allowed back-to-back homers and five runs to score.

But the Cardinals didn't let loose and threatened again in the bottom half of the inning when they put on two runners with two outs. And leadoff batter Negro used the opportunity and unleashed a three-run homer that put his team up 4-2 after four innings.

But that was the wake-up call for the Challengers. Nick Lehmann led off the inning with a walk, and Thomas Landis and Valdez followed with back-to-back homers. Two more runs scored for the Challengers on Blickenstorfer's sac fly that brought in Marchant and Tobi Siegrist for a score of 7-4 after 4 1-2 frames.

The Challengers added one more run in the top of the sixth on Marchant's RBI-single.

Räber started the sixth inning but didn't get out of it when he loaded the bases by giving up a walk and a double and hitting a batter with a pitch. In came Marchant and allowed just one of those runners to score.

	Jose Valdez went 3-for-4 and also hit his first homer of the season.

The Challengers added to more runs in the top of the seventh on Palatinus' solo homer to lead off the inning and Lehmann's RBI-single.

The Cards had one last chance in the bottom of the seventh and they used it well: The first two batters reached on a hit-by-pitch and a single, and the Challenger defense started to show signs of fatigue. They committed four errors in that inning after playing a flawless defensive game, and enabled the Cards to put the tying run on first base.

But the Cards were too impatient and wasted their own rally by giving the runner the green light at first base. Kusano took too big of a lead and was consequently thrown out by catcher Siegrist.

Game Notes: Leadoff batter Anubis Benitez went 0-for-5 and also stranded five runners, three of them in scoring position with two outs. ...Francisco Grinan doubled in his first Challenger NLA at-bat as a pinch-hitter. ...Player of the game was Marchant who went 3-for-3 at the plate, collected a save by pitching 1 1-3 strong innings, and also had an outfield assist in the first inning by throwing out Kusano at third base.