Challengers rally too late, lose 14-11

The Challengers' defense again collapsed, committing six errors in Game 1's 14-11 loss to the Zurich Barracudas.

The game was played on the Hunenberg Unicorns' new home field because the Heerenschürli will not be available throughout the season due to renovation.

Although the Challengers almost equaled the Barracudas' hit total of 13, it was the defense that made the difference in this encounter.

Half of the runs the Challengers allowed were unearned, while also five of the 11 runs allowed by the Barracudas were unearned.

Chris Palatinus started a game for the Challengers for the first time in 13 years, ending up with the loss by giving up seven earned runs on 10 hits and four walks while also striking out two.

He cruised through the first two innings before two errors and four hits pushed seven runs across for the Barracudas in the third inning.

The Challengers tagged Nderim Coma for three runs in the top half of the inning as left fielder Marcel Ochsner misplayed Palatinus' fly ball to left field, enabling two runners to score with two outs.

Yonimiler Martinez added an RBI-single.

The Barracudas extended their lead with two more unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth, and went on to score four more runs as Palatinus started to wear out.

With one out, Tobias Siegrist took over, and promptly conceded a run on his first pitch as catcher Martinez was charged with a passed ball.

Manu Hirtz would later add his fourth hit to collect his fourth and fifth RBI's of the game, pushing the Barracudas' lead to 14-3.

It seemed all over as the two teams entered the seventh frame, but the Challengers came back strongly by sending 11 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs to cut the lead to 14-11.

After getting former Barracuda Ueli von Burg to ground out to start the inning, Coma didn't manage to retire any of the next four batters, prompting manager JP Mottl to summon Stefan Spring from the pen.

But Spring was ineffective, giving up two hits, a walks, and throwing away the only ball that was hit to him.

On came veteran Ralph Vonderschmitt, once a player with the Challengers from 1988 through 1990.

The soft-tossing lefty managed to retire the Challengers' big bats to end the threat.

But after a walk and a double to start the next inning, Frank Berchtold was given the ball to close out the game.

And he was helped by a solid defense and again some terrible baserunning by the Challengers.

With no outs and two runners in scoring position, Palatinus was thrown out at the plate by shortstop Chico Colindres on James Sanders' grounder, then a botched first-and-third double-steal got Yonimiler Martinez in a rundown between third and home, and finally, Bryan Shemley whiffed for the third out.

In the ninth inning, von Burg was the last Challenger to reach on a base-on-balls, but Berchtold got Siegrist to fly out to left to end the game.

Game notes
Palatinus' last start was against the Bern Cardinals in a 13-3 win on August 11, 1996.