Challengers demolish Athletics 20-3

The Challengers started the second half of the season with a convincing 20-3 win over the helpless Richterswil Athletics in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader at the Heerenschürli.

The game was highlighted by Nick Lehmann's three homers. He was the only player to homer in the whole game. Two of the homers were two-run shots, and he added a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth, and finished with four hits in six at-bats, collecting five RBI's and also scoring four runs.

Thanks to Benny Räber's superb pitching, the Challengers built up a huge 16-0 lead after just four innings.

Räber (6-0) allowed only five hits - all of them singles - and shut out the A's in the first four innings, before starting to wear down in the fifth inning.

Thanks to two errors by rookie shortstop Patrick Zöllig the Athletics managed to score three unearned runs off Räber in the fifth inning.

Bu that was all the A's managed to put on the board all game.

Manny Marchant took over in the top of the sixth, and allowed only one more single and a walk in the final two innings.

Game notes: The first batter of the game, Eugster, was the 200th out Räber recorded in his NLA-career. ...Lehmann already topped his career-high for homers with his fourth homer of the season in the sixth inning. ...Chris Palatinus' stolen base in the 3rd inning was his 50th of his NLA-career.