Challengers rock Athletics 20-7

Benny Räber earned his third victory in as many starts as his offense collected 27 hits against the Richterswil Athletics en route to an easy 20-7 victory.

	Nick Lehmann went 4-for-6 and collected a game-high five RBI's.

15 of the 27 hits were for extra-bases and included three homers and 12 doubles, most of them ground-rule doubles that went over the fences on the short field in Richterswil.

Anubis Benitez led the attack as he went 6-for-6, including three doubles and his third homer of the season that led off the second inning.

The Challengers opened the score in the first inning by jumping on starter Stefano Sabbatini and batting around for four runs.

The A's managed to come within a run as they profited from an error by catcher Nick Lehmann who threw away a ball after a dropped third strike.

Chad Smith followed with a two-run homer.

But the Challengers got all three runs back in the following inning on Benitez' solo shot, an RBI-double by player-coach Andy Fleischacker, and an RBI-single by Chris Palatinus.

	Jose Valdez hit his team-leading fourth homer of the season, a two-run shot in the third inning.

After striking out the side in the bottom of the fourth, Räber ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth inning. Trailing 12-4, the Athletics mounted one more attack as they scored three times to get within 12-7 on an RBI-double by Smith and a two-run single by Marty.

That was also Räber's last inning. Just five of the seven runs he gave up were earned. He also struck out a season-high nine batters, and improved to 3-0 on the season.

Manny Marchant pitched the final two innings, giving up no runs and only two hits and two walks while striking out one batter.

Game Notes: Lehmann's double in the 3rd inning was his 100th career hit in the NLA. ...Willy Schaub went 1-for-2 and kept his career NLA batting average at .500 (2-for-4). ...Benitez' six runs and six hits tie the season high set by himself against the Cardinals on April 16.