Cardinals profit from Challengers' defensive miscues in 17-9 win

The Challengers' offense is not the problem this year, it's their defense.

Committing six errors in Game 2 of Saturday's doubleheader against the Bern Cardinals, they were never in line for the win as they went down 17-9.

Not even two triples by Ueli von Burg and two doubles by Jesus Martinez that landed on the warning track helped the Challengers' cause.

The Challengers scored first, again, as they roughed up rookie Ian Langhammer with four hits in the first innings that gave them a 3-0 lead.

The Cards responded with two runs off Tobias Siegrist, and took the lead in the bottom of the third on Jhonny Perigos' RBI-double and a two-run single by rookie Miro Bussmann.

It got even worse in the bottom of the next inning as catcher Seth Suplin hit the first ever inside-the-park homer that scored three more runs for a 9-4 lead.

The Challengers remained helpless against Langhammer and reliever Samuel Paulino, putting together just two runs from the second through the fifth innings.

The Cardinals, on the other hand, went on to score in bunches as they feasted on reliever Brina Hipps in the fifth inning. Three errors and five hits led to seven runs, all of them unearned.

Von Burg pitched the final inning, allowing one more run on a wild pitch, and his offense couldn't score more than just four runs in the final two innings.

Game notes
It's the first time in Challengers' history that a Challenger team hit two triples in a game, let alone by the same player.