Challengers finish Preeliminary Round with 9-3 record

After a little surprising loss in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader against the Zürich Barracudas, the Challengers came back and outslugged their opponents 14-5.

	Tobias Siegrist had only one hit in five at-bats, further dropping his batting average to a still respectable .429.

The Challengers and starter Thomas Landis made sure that the Cudas won't be having a chance this time, jumping to an early 5-0 lead after just two innings.

Barracudas starter Nico Kölliker, facing 14 batters in the first two innings, never managed to put the Challengers' batters under pressure.

Landis (5-0) helped his own cause by hitting an RBI-single and an RBI-double.

Anubis Benitez added his second homer of the season, a two-run shot to straight center.

The Challengers were close to blowing the game wide open in the top of the third inning as Chris Palatinus and Kurt Kovac led off with back-to-back doubles.

Rookie Jose Castillo reached on an error by first baseman Farid Bekkali to put runners on first and third.

Benny Räber then hit a line drive to third baseman Nderim Coma for the first out. He stepped on the bag to nip a charging Kovac for the second out. And because the hit-and-run was on, Castillo was already on second base, allowing Coma to make an easy throw to first base to complete the rare triple play.

But the Challengers would come back and get some more runs in the next inning.

The first three batters reached safely in the top of the fourth before Kölliker managed to retire Manny Marchant on a fielder's choice.

Tobias Siegrist struck out swinging for the second out, but Palatinus, Kovac and pinch-hitter Nick Lehmann followed with three consecutive singles.

A passed ball by backup catcher Arno Hoffmann made the score 11-0 in favor of the Challengers.

The Barracudas managed to put some runs on the board in the fifth inning thanks to four hits by Hoffmann, Ueli Von Burg, Manuel Hirtz and Frank Berchtold.

Landis managed to retire the next three batters to end the scoring, but that made his day.

Closer Marchant came on to pitch the final two innings, and he allowed only a single run on a perfect sac bunt by Stefan Suter in the final inning.

But the game lost any suspense early on and ended 14-5 for the Challengers.

Coupled with the Bern Cardinals' two losses against the Therwil Flyers on Sunday, the Challengers finished the Preeliminary Round in second place with a 9-3 record. The Flyers were atop with a 10-2 record.

Game notes
Lehmann stole his 50th base in the NLA in the fourth inning. ...The Challengers still hold a 10-2 edge over the Barracudas over the last four seasons.