Challengers 16, Barracudas 6

The Challengers' NLA-team concluded its 1998 regular season campaign with a convincing 16-6 vitory over the Zürich Barracudas to claim 1st place and secure home advantage throughout the playoffs.

Thomas Landis>

Thomas Landis picked up his 8th win of the season with a complete game eight-hitter.

Thomas Landis scattered eight hits over nine innings to earn his league-leading eighth win of the season. He allowed six runs - three of them unearned - on eight hits and seven walks while striking out five.

Landis (8-1) also hit his league-leading sixth homer and finished the game going 3-for-5 with a single, a double and a homer, including three RBI's and five runs scored.

The Challengers quickly went ahead by scoring three times in the first inning on Andreas Mathis' RBI-double and Roger Brunner's two-run double.

Bryan Shemley led off the second frame with his third homer of the year.

Mathis added another RBI-double, and Anubis Benitez added a run-scoring groundout to make it 6-0 for the Challengers in the middle of the second inning.

The Barracudas managed just a single run off Landis in the bottom of the second, profiting from three errors by the Challengers' defense.

Holgi Schmidt of the Barracudas hits one of only two doubles for the Barracudas.

After the Challengers scored one more run in the top of the third on a bases-loaded walk to Gary Kochlefl, Dave Sekac of the Barracudas hit the only Barracudas' homer of the day, a two-run shot to cut the deficit to 7-3.

Barracudas starter and former Challenger Farid Bekkali managed to retire the first two batters in the top of the fifth, but the next five Challengers reached base. Benitez and Brunner both had two-run singles to put the Challengers up 11-4.

The Barracudas had their last run-scoring inning in the bottom of the sixth when Holgi Schmidt scored on Ueli Von Burg's RBI-single and Sandro Giambonini scored from third base on Landis' balk.

After that, Landis' defense was solid and even turned an unusual double play in the seventh inning. Sekac was issued a walk and Stefan Suter followed with a groundout to third. Sekac didn't stop at second base and continued to hustle to third base. But first baseman Makoto Fukamachi saw Sekac being off second base and consequently threw to second baseman Kochlefl. But by the time Kochlefl had the ball, Sekac was already on his way to third. Kochlefl threw to shortstop Saentis Zeller who was covering third base and he applied the tag and completed a rare 5-3-4-6 double play.

Roger Brunner went 2-for-5 and collected a game-high five RBI's for the Challengers.

After a scoreless eighth inning, Zeller led off the ninth with his fifth double of the year. That sent Bekkali to the showers and Von Burg took over from him on the mound.

Kochlefl followed with a single and Landis then belted his sixth homer of the year for a huge 15-6 lead.

The Barracudas' defense then fell apart and committed three errors to allow one more run to score for the final score of 16-6 for the Challengers.

Sandro Giambonini was the 500th strikeout victim in the bottom of the fourth in Landis' NLA-career.

Landis' homer in the top of the ninth was his 40th in 544th NLA at-bats.