Hawks 11, Challengers 7

The Challengers lost for the first time ever against the Hawks from Rohr in a game that went into extra innings and lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Beat Eichenberger>

Beat Eichenberger tied the game in the bottom of the seventh with his sac fly.

After both teams scored in the first inning, no more runs were scored until the sixth inning where the Hawks scored one single run for a 4-2 lead that stood into the bottom of the seventh inning.

Nicki Lehmann led off the inning with a single and Iqbal Khan followed with his first NLA-triple to deep center field. With one out, Beat Eichenberger tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right that Khan almost misjudged and just barely beat the throw home. Chris Palatinus grounded out for the third out of the inning and the game went into extra innings.

No team managed to score any runs in the eight and ninth innings. Both teams had just one baserunner each to reach second base.

In the tenth, with reliever Thomas Landis still on the mound, the Hawks led off with a single, a hit by pitch, two walks and a baserunner that reached on an error. That sent Landis to the showers and in came rookie Nicki Lehmann who hasn't pitched an inning ever in the NLA. He walked the first two batters he faced, but then retired the next three on a sac fly, a popup and a caught stealing. But by that time, the Hawks pushed seven runners across the plate to set the score to 11-4.

So the Challengers had to catch up again and manufacture a rally, but they just managed to score three more runs on a homer by Eichenberger and two singles.

The Challengers once again lost to an opponent they were supposed to beat easily, but to no avail. They have now lost to each NLA-team at least once and the race for the last playoff berth has heated up again.