Challengers 7, Cardinals 2

Game 2 of Saturday's doubleheader against the Bern Cardinals was a much closer affair, but in the end, the Challengers came away with a 7-2 victory for their seventh win a row.

Benny Räber>

No. 2 starter Benny Räber had a fine outing as he collected win no. 2 of the season.

Starter Benny Räber had just one baserunner through the first 2 1-3 innings on an error by himself before he gave up the first of total two hits in five innings. It was a solo homer by left fielder Chuck Vail, his first homer of the season.

Räber (2-0) allowed one more run to score on Ron Zimmermann's RBI-single, but it was the last run the Cards could score for the day.

Räber then worked out of a bases-loaded jam with two outs by retiring Severin Fries on a grounder to third.

He was relieved by Anubis Benitez after working five innings for his second win of the season. He struck out six and now has 70 K's in just 62.1 career NLA innings.

Benitez faced the minimum of six batters in the last two innings, aided by a fine double-play by himself, Makoto Fukamachi and Jose Valdez.

Thomas Landis, Valdez and Roger Brunner led the Challengers with two hits apiece.

Gary Kochlefl, going 2-for-5 in the doubleheader, now leads all Challengers with a .455 batting average. Landis is last amongst the qualifiers with a nevertheless remarkable .410 batting average, just 8 points below his career average.

Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer popped out to the second baseman in his 200th NLA at-bat.