Challengers keep seaon alive with 15-9 win, and force deciding Game 5

The Challengers were forced to win Game 4 against the Therwil Flyers in order to defend their title and send the Finals Series to a winner-takes-it-all fifth game.

	Benny Räber pitched 6 2-3 innings for his 10th win of the season.

But the Flyers came out pounding starter Benny Räber in the first inning, scoring four times on three walks, a sac fly and a two-run homer by Djibril Traore.

The Challengers did the only right thing and scored four runs on their own in the bottom half of the first frame. Anubis Benitez led off with a single, and Nick Lehmann connected for his fifth homer of the season, and just the second hit in 15 at-bats in the Finals.

Two errors by shortstop Reto Siegel enabled two more unearned runs for the Challengers to score.

Lehmann doubled his feat and hit another homer off Alain Kurz the following inning, a solo shot to put his team up 5-4.

	Nick Lehmann hit two homers and collected a game-high three RBI's.

In the meantime, Räber blanked the Flyers in the second, third and fourth innings, retiring nine batters in a row after Stefan Siegel led off the second with a walk.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Challengers exploded for five runs, getting homers from Benitez and Jose Valdez, and a two-run single by rookie Patrick Zöllig for a 10-4 lead.

The Flyers could answer only with a single run on Roy Allenspach's run-scoring ground out, but the Challengers got that run back on a bases-loaded walk to Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer by reliever Richard Kurz.

After a 1-2-3 innning in the top of the sixth, the Challengers further extended their lead by getting a run on a double play grounder by Valdez and an RBI-single by Manny Marchant to take a temporary 13-5 lead.

Räber then started to wear down in the next inning, and gave up four runs - two of them unearned - on three singles, a double, a base-on-balls and a fielding error by shortstop Zöllig.

	Alain Kurz was again roughed up for 10 runs in four innings to take the loss - his second in the Finals.

Thomas Landis took the mound and promptly loaded the bases by giving up a walk to Richard Kurz with two outs.

But no. 9 batter Stefan Siegel hit a comebacker to the mound, and Landis lobbed the ball to first base for the final out of the inning, preserving a 13-9 lead.

The Challengers added a run apiece in the seventh and eighth innings on Benitez' RBI-double, and a wild pitch by reliever Koller.

Landis, in the meantime, was in full control, and was also helped by a double play in the eighth inning. With Reto Siegel on second, and Zwyer on first base, Koller lined a sharp drive directly at second baseman Chris Palatinus who grabbed the ball and stepped on second to double up Siegel who took too big of a lead. Allenspach grounded out to third for the third out to end the threat.

The Flyers mounted one more rally in the ninth inning.

Landis allowed the first three batters to reach on back-to-back singles by Alain Kurz and Djibril Traore, and a walk to Fernando Abril.

	Shortstop Reto Siegel had a day to forget as he committed three errors, enabling three unearned runs to score.

He struck out Richard Kurz and Stefan Siegel, and Reto Siegel weakly grounded out to the mound for the final out, sending the Series to a deciding Game 5.

While the Challengers outhit the Flyers 19-10, they also committed only two errors (compared to five by the Flyers), and the pitching by Räber and Landis was more than enough to silence the Flyers' bats.

Just like last year, the two best teams in the past couple years will determine the outcome of the Finals in a fifth and final game. Last year, the Challengers won 12-11 in a heartbreaker final to capture their second consecutive title.

Game notes: Benitez tied Landis' single-season record for doubles of 26 by hitting an RBI-double in the bottom of the seventh inning. He also pulverized the records for runs and hits in a single season, collecting 72 hits (66 was the old record) and scoring 72 runs (67). ...Landis tied his career-high by getting his 63rd hit of the season, a single in the sixth inning. ...Lehmann scored his 150th career NLA run as he homered in the first inning. ...Palatinus broke his career-high for at-bats in a season when he stepped to the plate for the 115th time in the 3rd inning.