Cards blow away Challengers in 19-5 win

The Bern Cardinals handed the Swiss Champions a bitter 19-5 defeat in the second game of Sunday's doubleheader at the Allmend.

It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Challengers, giving them a dismal 1-5 record in the Qualification Round, and an overall record of 10-8.

Although the Challenges started strong, the Cardinals answered right back and demoralized their opponents.

Patrick Zöllig, Tobias Siegrist and Saentis Zeller led off the game with a single and back-to-back doubles off Severin Fries, and Chris Palatinus' sacrifice fly to right field added the Challengers' third run of the inning.

But in the bottom half of the inning, the Cardinals also led off the game with three consecutive hits, all singles by Angelo Rodriguez, Fries and John Baum.

After Ron Zimmermann grounded into a double play and Raphael Hänzi was hit by a pitch, Oliver Labhart's next pitch went wild and enabled Fries to score the second run.

The Cards weren't done and added three more in the next inning as three of the first six batters added three more singles.

Two throwing errors did the rest.

But it came even worse for the Challengers in the bottom of the third, as seven unanswered runs crossed the plate to blow the game wide open at 12-3.

Labhart and reliever Harry Bregy gave up five hits in the inning, and a shaky infield added three more throwing errors, making five of those runs unearned.

Bregy finished the inning and was relieved by Willy Schaub, pitching for the first time since Opening Day on April 10. He tossed two innings in which he gave up three runs on four hits and two walks.

Zöllig was also summoned from the bullpen to pitch the final inning, giving up four more runs on no hits and three walks.

At the end of the game, the Cardinals ammassed 15 hits, seven walks and three hit-by-pitches, and also profited from seven errors.

Game notes
Labhart's loss was his first this season. He dropped his season record to 3-1. ...Roger Burger's first big appearance in the NLA was one to forget as he struck out and popped out in two at-bats and then committed two fielding errors at third base. ...Palatinus is battling a slump, batting only .042 (1-for-24) over the last eight games, dropping his batting average from .324 to .213.