Flyers 12, Challengers 0

Alain Kurz threw a one-hit shutout to beat the Challengers 12-0 in Game 2 of Sunday's doubleheader.

Alain Kurz was sensational in Game 2, shutting out the Challengers on a one-hitter.

The Challengers found no recipe against Kurz and were similarly humiliated as last year's loss in Game 3 of the Playoff Semifinals against him.

At one point, Kurz retired 11 batters in a row, seven of them on strikes.

The nearest the Challengers came to score were in the fifth and sixth innings as they loaded the bases. In the fifth, Andreas Mathis received a base-on-balls and stole second and went to third on Kurz's wild pitch.

Kurz then retired the next two batters on a flyout and a strikeout, but then walked rookie Joe Cox who then promptly stole second.

Kurz loaded them up by hitting Bryan Shemley with a pitch. But Saentis Zeller followed with a strikeout to end the threat.

In the sixth, Gary Kochlefl led off with a walk and went to second on Chris Guex' passed ball. Landis grounded out to move Kochlefl to third and Anubis Benitez got on with yet another walk.

Kochlefl then tried to score on a passed ball by Guex but was thrown out at the plate thanks to Kurz's fine reaction to block the plate.

With two outs, Kurz walked the next two batters to load the bases again. Up came Nick Lehmann, who, earlier in the day, was activated from the disabled list. He weakly grounded out to second to end the sixth.

Kurz still had his no-hitter going with two outs in the seventh as Kochlefl stepped to the plate.

With Shemley on second base, Kochlefl managed the only Challenger hit off Kurz up the middle, and it seemed as Kurz would also lose his shutout. But Shemley rounded third base and center fielder Roger Hunziker's fine throw beat him at the plate for the final out.

The Challengers have now a 2.5-game lead over the Flyers and a 2-game lead over the Zürich Barracudas going into the final weekend of the regular season. A win against the Barracudas would be enough to claim first place, but the Barracudas are the only team that managed to beat the Challengers twice this season.

The two games against the Barracudas will be played on Sunday August 2nd.