Challengers score big in 1st inning and hold on for a 6-3 win

The Challengers scored five runs in the first inning and held on to win 6-3 against the Bern Cardinals in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.

	Thomas Landis struck out 11 batters in his second complete game of the season.

Thomas Landis went the distance on the mound for the Challengers and struck out a season-high 11 batters for his third win of the season. He gave up only three runs on three hits and no walks.

Two of the hits were homers by Hänzi and Sammet and accounted for the only runs by the Cards.

Sammet's solo homer to lead off the third inning broke up Landis' perfect game.

Landis struck out two batters in every inning but the second and fifth. He pushed his career total to 636 K's in 577 IP for a lifetime ratio of 9.97 strikeouts over a nine inning game.

The Challengers were all over Cardinal starter Kleiber as they led off with four singles before Kleiber recorded the first out.

	Rookie Orlando Balbuena collected two of the Challengers' three RBI's.

An infield error and two more singles chased Kleiber, and by the middle of the first inning, the Challengers already led 5-0.

Tobias Siegrist drove in another run with his RBI-single in the second inning, but that was all the scoring the Challengers needed behind Landis' pitching.

Hänzi's two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth inning marked the last runner that advanced further than first base for the rest of the game for the Cards.

The Challengers also remained silent against reliever Curtis Volk, getting just two baserunners in the final three innings.

Game notes
Landis' previous high for strikeouts was his 13-strikeout performance against the Therwil Flyers in Game 4 of the 1999 Playoff Finals. His previous high for a seven-inning game was 10, also against the Cardinals on August 29, 1999.