Challengers win rain-shortened game 11-4 against Devils

It took the Challengers four innings until their offense kicked into gear.

Trailing 2-1 after three innings, the Challengers scored seven times in the top of the fourth inning to put away a rain-shortened Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader against the Wil Devils.

	Benny Räber pitched his second complete game in two days.

After pitching a complete game on Saturday against the Embrach Rainbows, Benny Räber again got the starting assignment, and pitched five innings for his fifth win of the season. He allowed four runs on six hits and two walks that increased his ERA to 6.91. But it was enough to pick up his second win in two days to improve to 5-3 on the season.

The Challengers scored first on back-to-back doubles by Jose Vazquez and Jose Valdez.

The Devils scored a run in the bottom half of the inning on the Challengers' one of two errors of the game as Vazquez misplayed Isenring's soft grounder to third that enabled Haltiner to score from third.

Räber than gave up a solo homer to Berger in the bottom of the third that gave the lead to the Devils, but the Challengers answered right away with a huge seven-run fourth inning.

	Roger Brunner went 3-for-3 and increased his batting average to .390.

Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer and Patrick Zöllig both hit sac flies that were misplayed by the Devil outfield. Harry Bregy hit an RBI-single, Anubis Benitez' ground out also scored a run, and Vazquez capped the inning with his third homer of the year, a two run shot that gave the Challengers a comfortable 8-2 lead.

The Challengers added three more runs in the next inning as they profited from two more defensive blunders. Bregy added another RBI-single, and Thor Thoresen also had an RBI-single.

Räber allowed two more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on Isenring's RBI-single and Löpfe's run-scoring ground out.

	Thor Thoresen went 1-for-3 and had an important RBI in the fifth inning.

The Challengers were retired quickly in the top of the sixth inning as the only baserunner was Manny Marchant with a double, but the inning didn't count anymore as the game was called in the bottom of the sixth after the first four Devils reached base to score one more run.

Game notes
Brunner's eight steals are his second highest total of his career, trailing only his 14 thefts in 1999. ...The Challengers played without four of their usual starters: Nick Lehmann and Thomas Landis are in the States and will return by the start of the playoffs, Tobias Siegrist is on vacation the next two weeks, and Chris Palatinus sat out in favor of Benitez who started at second base for the first time with the Challengers.