Challengers 11, Frogs 10

The Zürich Challengers overcame a 10-9 deficit in the bottom of the tenth to beat the Frogs 11-10 in their first encounter of the best-of-three series for 3rd place.

Rookie Thomas Blank lifted a short pop-up over the drawn-in outfield to score Bosshard from 3rd base with one out in the bottom of the tenth.

Thomas Landis>

Thomas Landis went 6-for-6 and collected five RBI's to raise his league-leading average to .505.

The Challengers had an early early against Frogs starter Steve Klee (7-5) as they scored four in the first and one in the second inning to take a quick 5-0 lead.

The Frogs responded by scoring three runs of their own in the third on a two-run homer by Stefan Lüthy and an RBI-single by Mike Klee, cutting the Challengers' lead to 5-3.

Challengers rookie Patrick Bosshard left after four innings, giving up four runs - one of them unearned - on four hits and six walks. He struck out five of the 22 batters he faced, including right fielder Brich twice.

Roger Brunner shut out the Frogs in the fifth inning, and Thomas Landis (11-6) came in to close out the game.

By that time, the Challengers held on to an 8-4 lead. But Landis walked Peter Rüfenacht with the bases loaded and gave up a two-run single to shortstop Ivano Piaia that brought the Frogs within one run of the Challengers.

The Challengers scored once more in the seventh on a double steal by Chris Palatinus and Thomas Blank for an insurance run and a 9-7 lead.

In the top of the ninth, Landis quickly retired Mike Klee on a groundout, but his brother Steve reached on an error by Palatinus to put the tying run at home plate.

Landis again loaded the bases by issuing a walk to Holzer and hitting pinch-hitter Robert Rieder with a pitch. Center fielder Wick followed with a fielder's choice to the shortstop, retiring pinch-runner Widmer at second base for the second out, but not before Steve Klee crossed home plate with the Frogs 8th run.

The Frogs' tying run was now at third base with two outs in the ninth, and they simply tied the score by executing a double steal, that saw Wick stealing second and Holzer racing home on the throw to second to tie the score at 9 apiece.

The Challengers had a great chance to seal the victory in their half of the ninth as they loaded the bases with two outs, but Steve Klee got Nicki Lehmann to poorly ground out to second for the third out.

The Frogs managed to score a run in the top of the tenth on a passed ball by Lehmann and the pressure was on for the Challengers.

They reacted by slapping three consecutive hits - two singles and an RBI-double by rookie Bosshard - to tie the game and the Frogs decided to walk Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer intentionally to load the bases to face Palatinus. He hit a grounder to second baseman Alessandro Traina who threw out Roger Brunner at home for the first out.

Then rookie Thomas Blank followed with his pop-up and the Challengers took the first game in this series that determines who will take 3rd place and travel to the European Cup next year.