Challengers down Rainbows 16-3

The Challengers traveled to Embrach to play the final two games of their season series against the Embrach Rainbows on Saturday.

	Thomas Landis hit two homers off Campassi and collected a game-high five RBI's.

And the Rainbows seemed to be determined to win at least one game against the reigning Swiss Champions.

They were at least in the first three innings in Game 1 as they held on to a slim 2-1 lead against starter Benny Räber. Both runs came off Francisco-Robles' two-run shot with two outs in the bottom of the first inning.

But everybody knew that a one run-lead is not enough against a hot-hitting team like the Challengers are.

And they came through in the top of the fourth inning, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring six times for a 7-2 lead.

They put the ball into play and then profited from six errors by the shaky Rainbow defense. None of those six runs off starter Savoldelli was earned.

The Rainbows managed to score one more unearned run off Räber (7-0) in the bottom half of the inning, but after that, Räber cruised on to his team-leading seventh victory of the season. He completed the game, giving up three runs - one of them unearned - on seven hits, three walks, and striking out a season-high 10 batters.

	Rainbow starter Roger Savoldelli left after four innings after giving up only a single earned run.

The Rainbows then put reliever Chris Campassi on the mound, and the Challengers went on to score nine more runs off him.

Again, the lousy Rainbow defense was responsible for six unearned runs off Campassi. The only big hits off him were Thomas Landis' two homers and doubles by Jose Valdez, Tobias Siegrist and Chris Palatinus.

In the end, only four of the 16 runs scored by the Challengers were earned, and the game would have been a much closer affair if the Rainbow defense would have done ist job.

Game notes: Räber started his 40th game for the Challengers' NLA-team which is the second most, only behind Landis' 69.