Defensive miscues cost C's final game of season

In the last game of the season the Challengers outhit their opponent, gave up less earned runs, cut a six-run-deficit to two but eventually lost to the Bern Cardinals 9-7.

The home team fell behind quickly in the first inning when starter Yanik Probst and catcher Adrian Kämpfer">Adrian Kämpfer struggled to be on the same page. A couple of passed balls and a pair of errors led to 4 unearned runs.

After the battery had settled in, Probst collected 5 K's in his limited appearance of 2 innings.

At the plate the Challengers bounced right back with Probst delivering his second game-opening triple of the day and scoring on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by Daiki Sato.

Sato reached on the play and scored later on Willi Schaub's base-knock.

Schaub relieved Probst and cruised easily through the next two innings, taking a one-hitter into the fifth inning, but ran into problems there.

Cardinal Rick Schaller bunted for a hit, base-umpire Frank Berchtold ruled a controversial bobble on the next batter, and Schaub lost control with 4 wild pitches in short time.

2 Runs had scored as Schaub was relieved by Kämpfer who got out of the inning, but not before giving up the only extra-base-hit of the game for the Cards that plated another 2 runs.

Again, the Challengers were able to react and scored 3 times on a couple of walks and Dean Scherbaum's 2-run-double.

In the final two innings, Probst added another triple and was batted in by Sato's sac fly while closer Oliver Christen scored after drawing a walk.

Christen had surrendered an earned run in his 2 innings of work and the final score was 7-9.

Game notes:
Probst's triple in the 6th inning was his seventh of the season, setting a record for both single season and career in the organization... Schaub's walk in the fifth inning was the 100th of his career, setting a new Challengers NLB-record... The 24 games in 2010 were the most any NLB-squad of the organization played up to date... The talented pitching staff recorded a combined 190 strikeouts in the season, passing the 181 of 93's staff for most in Challengers NLB history... The new Heerenschürli had its effects on the Challengers' pitching record as well: with 5.60 the team ERA (in 162.2 innings pitched) is lower than in any previous year except 2004 (3.95 in 54.2 innings pitched)... While the 2010 NLB Challengers often suffered untimely errors in defense, they still managed to set a clear new record for defensive efficiency with .6639 compared to the second best .6237 (2002 NLB Challengers)... On the offensive side, the 2010 team reached all-time highs in triples (9), sacrifices (21) but also strikeouts (186) and all-time lows in batting average (.223) and OPS (.656)