Challengers back in Finals after 15-5 victory over Cards

Thomas Landis pitched his third complete game of the season to lift the Challengers over the Bern Cardinals 15-5 and send his team to a third consecutive Swiss Finals.

	Thomas Landis mastered the Cards over nine innings, allowing only two earned runs.

But after his 7-for-7 performance the other day, he also went 4-for-5 at the plate to increase his team-leading batting average to .543, 104 points higher than his lifetime NLA batting average.

His offense gave him a 2-0 lead after two innings on his own RBI-double in the first inning, and a solo homer by Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer, his fifth of the season, in the second frame.

The Cards got one run back on Kusano's run-scoring ground out, and starter Severin Fries blanked the Challengers over the next two innings.

The Cards got alive in the bottom of the fourth and scored three runs - two of them unearned - for a 4-2 lead on RBI-singles by Negro and Fries, and a throwing error by Landis on a sac bunt by Kusano.

	Armin Blickenstorfer went 2-for-3, including his fifth homer of the season.

But the Challengers got two runs back in the next inning to tie the score at 4-4 on a passed ball by Marco Haas and a mishandle by second baseman Angelo Rodriguez on a steal attempt by Landis.

The Challengers took the lead in the next inning on catcher Tobias Siegrist's RBI-single, his first hit in Bern this season.

After exchanging zeros for the next two half-innings, Larsen Rodriguez hit an offering by Landis over the left field fences for a solo homer to tie the game again at 5-5.

Going into the sixth inning, nothing indicated that a big Challenger inning would follow, but it did.

Manny Marchant led off with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Harry Bregy. But Bregy promptly got picked off after the second pitch for the first out.

Blickenstorfer followed with a single but was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.

	Anubis Benitez collected a game-high four RBI's and also stole two bases.

But Siegrist and Joe Cox followed with back-to-back walks, and Anubis Benitez plated both runners with his 11th homer of the season.

Nick Lehmann also received a base-on-balls, and Landis followed with his 14th homer of the year to put his team ahead 10-5 after 7 1/2 innings.

He also kept the Cards scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, and his offense provided him with an even bigger lead by scoring five more in the ninth inning on a wild pitch by Fries, a fielding error by Angelo Rodriguez, Benitez' RBI-single, and Jose Valdez' two-run double for a 15-5 lead.

Landis finished the day with a 1-2-3 ninth inning. He gave up a total of nine hits, five runs - three of them unearned - and two walks while striking out eight en route to his fifth win of the season.

	Tobi Siegrist got his first two hits of the season in Bern.

The Challengers will now face the Therwil Flyers next Saturday for Game 1 of this year's Swiss Finals in a rematch of 1999 when the Challengers captured their second consecutive title with a 3-2 win of the series.

Game notes: Blickenstorfer's homer in the second inning broke his career-high for total bases with 55, and tied his career-high with his 29th run scored of the year. ...Cox tied his career-high with his 33rd hit of the season by lining a double to center field in the sixth inning. It also broke his career-high for total bases, being his 46th of the season. ...Landis' homer in the 8th inning was his 70th of his NLA-career and tied his career-high set last year with 14. He also tied his career-high with 16 stolen bases. ...Siegrist singled in his 150th career NLA at-bat in the ninth inning.