Von Burg and Barracudas outduel Räber, win 6-5 in final at-bat

Contrary to game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader, the Challengers and Barracudas got involved in a pitcher's duel in which Ueli Von Burg came up as the winner in the Barracudas' 6-5 victory.

	Benny Räber lost his first complete game of the season despite allowing just six runs - two unearned - on nine hits, three walks and 12 strikeouts.

Von Burg allowed just one run through the first four innings, and it came in the first on catcher Nderim Coma's fielding error that scored Anubis Benitez from third base.

Challenger starter Benny Räber almost matched Von Burg's performance as he allowed just two runs in the first inning. But both runs were unearned as Chris Palatinus bobbled two balls for errors no. 5 and 6 of the season.

Leading 2-1, Von Burg started the fifth by hitting Benitez with a pitch. It was a costly hit by pitch as Manny Marchant followed with a blast over the center field fences for a two-run homer and a 3-2 lead for the Challengers.

	Marchant hits a monster homer in the top of the fifth inning to give his team a 3-2 lead.

Von Burg got into deeper trouble as he loaded the bases on a single and two walks with no outs. But the Challengers helped him out as Thomas Landis tried to steal home on a passed ball but came up short. And player-coach Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer hit a liner back to Von Burg who promptly relayed the ball to third base to double up Jose Valdez who took a too big lead.

So Räber was given the lead and it looked as he could hold it through the next inning. Michel Herzig led off with a single, and promptly stole second and third base. Räber showed guts and retired the next two batters on three strikes.

	Benny Räber Pitcher Benny Räber
	1999 SEASON STATISTICS IP W L SV SO ERA 9.1 0 2 0 15 7.50

Up stepped rookie substitue Flo Bosshard for what seemed to be the sure third out. But Räber left a pitch high in the strike zone and Bosshard promptly hit a homer to right center that barely cleared the fences for a 4-3 lead.

In the following inning, three Challengers stepped up to the plate, and each of them was retired on three strikes by Von Burg. Joe Cox and Bryan Shemley went down looking and pinch-hitter Nick Lehmann struck out swinging.

The Barracudas managed to extend their lead to 5-3 on Herzig's RBI-single, but Räber finished the inning by striking out Marc Riva for the third consecutive time.

	Ueli Von Burg outdueled Benny Räber and finished with five runs given up - one of them unearned - on seven hits and ten walks while striking out nine.

The Challengers were now forced to score at least two runs in the top of the seventh to send the game into extra-innings. And they promptly did so. Valdez hit an RBI-double that scored Marchant, and after loading the bases on an intentional walk to Roger Brunner, Blickenstorfer hit a run-scoring fielder's choice to third to tie the game. Cox again loaded the bases afterwards, but Shemley who struck out in his last three at-bats hit a lazy fly ball that was caught by left fielder Bosshard for the third out.

Räber then took the mound to start the bottom of the seventh and he retired the first two batters on a ground out and a strikeout. Substitute Yussuf Isik singled and went to second on Räber's wild pitch. And just like in the fifth inning, another batter that seemed like the easy third out stepped up to the plate. Ali Killer, a utility player for the Barracudas came to the plate and promptly hit a ground-rule double over the right field fence for the winning run and the final score of 6-5 in favor of the Barracudas.

Game Notes: Räber's 12 strikeouts were a career-high, and the most for a Challenger pitcher this season. ...Marchant hit his sixth homer in only his 29th at-bat of the season, giving him an astonishing 1.233 slugging percentage. ...After calling seven balks in game 1, the umpires made just one balk call in game 2.