Coma homers twice as Barracudas humiliate Challengers 24-11

The Zurich Barracudas scored in the late innings to beat the Zurich Challengers 24-11 in game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.

	Anubis Benitez gets hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance.

The game took exactly three hours to complete, and it was closer than the final result might suggest.

The Barracudas took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Tom Houston's two-run homer with two outs off starter Benny Räber. It was the first of five homers Räber (0-3) gave up during his 5 plus innings of work on the mound. He managed to retire the Barracudas in order only in the second inning as he fanned Scott Newman and Patrick Knecht and got Ueli Von Burg to hit a flyout to left.

The Challengers scored just once in the first inning before the Barracudas added two more runs in the top of the third on Nderim Coma's two-run shot to left center field, his first of two homers in the game. He finished going 4-for-5 with eight RBI's and four runs scored.

	Ueli Von Burg again got a victory against his former team, pitching a complete-game victory for his fourth win of the season.

But the Challengers managed to score two runs themselves on Anubis Benitez' RBI-single and a passed ball by Coma that enabled Joe Cox to score from third base.

Räber kept the Barracudas scoreless in the fourth, and his offense provided him with a 7-4 lead in the bottom of the inning. Bryan Shemley hit a solo homer, Nick Lehmann added a sac fly that scored rookie Tobias Siegrist who started in his first NLA-game, and Benitez capped the inning with a two-run homer.

	Benny Räber Pitcher Benny Räber
	1999 SEASON STATISTICS IP W L SV SO ERA 14.1 0 3 0 18 10.67

The Barracudas reacted promptly and sent ten batters to the plate in the top of the fifth inning who went on to score seven times. Coma hit a grand-slam, and Von Burg hit a two-run shot, his first homer of the season.

The Challengers managed to close the gap to 11-10 in the bottom half of the inning though, but that was as close as they could get the rest of the game.

Räber then was chased in the top of the sixth after Houston hit his second homer of the game, and reliever Jose Valdez tried to reduce further damage. But he was roughed up for two more runs in that inning, and the Barracudas went on to collect ten hits off Valdez and Roger Brunner in the seventh inning to score nine more runs.

	Bryan Shemley hits his second homer of the season in the fourth inning, a solo shot off Ueli Von Burg.

The game ended 24-11 in the Barracudas' favor.

It was the highest run total the Challengers gave up this season, surpassing clearly the 14 runs Challenger pitchers have allowed against the Therwil Flyers in their two meetings this season.