Landis leads 30-hit attack against Cards in Game 1's 33-11 win

Thomas Landis went 7-for-7 with seven RBI's, including two homers and two doubles on Saturday in Game 1 of this year's Playoff Semifinals against the Bern Cardinals.

	Thomas Landis had a career-high seven hits in seven at-bats and also collected seven RBI's.

Although the Cards led 10-1 after 2 1/2 innings, the Challengers fought back and trashed the Cards 32-1 in the remaining 3 1/2 innings to take home a 33-11 win.

The Cards had a good start and profited from four errors by the Challenger defense early in the game.

Benny Räber threw away two easy ground balls at first base in the first two innings, and first baseman Harry Bregy also dropped a throw from right fielder Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer that enabled nine unearned runs to score in the first three innings for the Cards.

Curtis Volk capped a seven-run third inning with his first grand-slam of the season to put his team up 10-1.

But the Challengers fought back and scored six unanswered runs in the bottom of the third inning off Volk.

	Benny Räber pitched his fourth complete game of the season and picked up his career-high ninth win of the season.

Räber then cruised through the next three innings, allowing only one more run to score in the top of the fifth inning on Larsen Rodriguez' RBI-single.

Meanwhile, his offense kicked into gear and scored run after run.

The first three batters of the fourth inning reached and finished Volk's day. He was relieved by Kusano who managed to retire Jose Valdez on a ground out, but then walked the next two batters, sending him to the showers.

Cardinal ace Severin Fries took over and he was greeted by Blickenstorfer's RBI-single.

And Bregy and Joe Cox also managed to hit lazy RBI-singles off Fries to put the Challengers ahead 12-10 after four innings.

	Armin Blickenstorfer had a homer, a double and two singles in five at-bats and also collected a season-high six RBI's.

The Cards threatened one more time in the top of the fifth as Larsen Rodriguez' RBI-single brought his team within one run, but a 5-3 double play by Valdez and Bregy ended the inning and extinguished the Cards' rally.

Fries started the bottom of the fifth by striking out Nick Lehmann, but wasn't able to retire any of the next 13 batters he faced.

In that fifth inning alone, Landis hit two singles and a solo homer, Blickenstorfer hit a two-run double and a single, Valdez had three singles, Cox hit a single and a double, and Chris Palatinus hit an RBI-single and a three-run homer that sent Fries to the showers.

Volk took over one more time and had to face eight batters before finally managing to get the final two outs.

The Challengers sent 22 batters to the plate that scored 16 times for a 28-11 lead in that one inning.

	Fries pitched just one inning and was rocked for 12 earned runs by the Challengers' offense.

Räber shut down the Cards in the top of the sixth inning and completed his fourth game of the season, giving up 11 runs - nine of them unearned - on ten hits, five walks while striking out four.

His offense ended the game in the bottom of the sixth by scoring five times on Anubis Benitez' RBI-single, a passed ball by catcher Marco Haas, and Landis' three-run shot, his 13th of the season.

The two teams will face off tomorrow in Game 2 in Bern, with Landis taking the mound for the Challengers in a matchup with Fries.

Game notes: Landis' performance boosted his team-leading batting average to .530, and he also took the lead in RBI's with 49, and trails Manny Marchant in homers by only two. He also reached 100 at-bats for the fourth consecutive season. ...Blickenstorfer singled in his 400th NLA at-bat of his career in the fifth inning. It also broke his career season-high, being his 29th hit of the season. ...Palatinus broke his career season-high with his 44th hit of the season, a three-run homer off Fries in the fifth inning. ...Lehmann broke his career season-high with his 49th run scored in the fifth inning.