NLA Game 23, Aug. 14, 99

CHA
4
 1234567RHE
Challengers 0001300457
Cardinals 201070x1042
W: Fries L: Marchant
CAR
10

Cards upset Challengers 10-4, take 2nd place in standings

The Challengers and Bern Cardinals resumed their suspended game from April 18, and it took the host Cardinals just one inning to decide it.

  
Tobias Siegrist gets easily thrown out at 2nd base.
Tobias Siegrist gets easily thrown out at 2nd base.

The Challengers managed to bring their runner home from second base to take a 4-3 lead after 4 1/2 innings.

Manny Marchant relieved Roger Brunner to start the bottom of the fifth inning, and he quickly gave it away.

He gave up two bases-loaded walks, and Anubis Benitez committed two errors that enabled a total seven runs - five of them unearned - to score for a 10-4 Cardinal lead.

Anubis Benitez
3rd baseman
Anubis
Anubis Benitez
1999 SEASON STATISTICS
ABRHRBIHRAVG
875038299.437
The Challengers found no recipe against Cardinals ace Severin Fries and weren't able to score any more runs in the final two innings. He finished with four runs given up - one of them unearned - on five hits, walking five while striking out ten.

The Challengers managed to get two hits in the top of the seventh, but Tobias Siegrist was caught stealing after reaching on a single for the second out, and Nick Lehmann was stranded on second base after hitting his second double of the game. It was his seventh double of the season, breaking his previous career high of six doubles in a single season.

With that win, the Cardinals moved one game ahead of the Challengers and into sole posession of 2nd place.

Game Notes: Benitez broke Adris Linares' record of 49 runs scored in a single season, set back in 1994 with his 50th run of the season in the fifth inning. ...Lehmann's two doubles gave him 99 career total bases.