Flyers rally to hand Challengers first loss of the season

The Challengers traveled to Therwil to play their final doubleheader of the preeliminary round against the Flyers.

	Thomas Landis went 5+ innings, ending up with the first loss of the season.

Although the Challengers have already clinched first place, the two teams battled to yet another classic Flyers-Challengers derby.

The Challengers surrendered a 5-1 lead after 4 1-2 innings with the Flyers scoring six runs in the final two innings to end up with a close 7-6 victory.

The Flyers scored first as Roy Allenspach drilled an RBI-double down the left-field line that scored Seppi Zwyer.

The two teams exchanged zeros on the board in the next two innings, before the Challengers struck for the first time.

They loaded the bases in the top of the fourth innning on Manny Marchant's single with two outs, a walk to Roger Brunner and a hit by pitch on Kurt Kovac.

Light-hitting Harry Bregy followed with a liner back to the fence in center field that fell in for a double and plated both Marchant and Brunner.

	Harry Bregy connects for a two-run double in the top of the fourth inning.

The Challengers added three more runs off reliever Stefan Koller in the next inning.

Jose Valdez singled and Tobias Siegrist walked in front of Marchant's homer that barely cleared the fences in left field, giving his team a 5-1 lead.

Koller settled down after that and retired the final four batters he faced.

And his offense provided him the lead in the fifth and sixth inning.

Allenspach and Alain Kurz hit back-to-back RBI-singles in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the Challengers' lead to 5-3.

Thomas Landis opened the bottom of the sixth inning by walking player-coach Anthony Bennett, Jacob Clinton and Reto Siegel in succession.

	Manny Marchant collected a game-high three RBI's, with a team-high two hits. He also scored twice.

That made his day, and closer Marchant came on to protect the slim lead.

But first he forgot Bennett standing on third base. After his first pitch to Zwyer, Marchant took the ball and walked towards second base, shaking his head in disbelief about plate umpire Severin Fries' call. Bennett took the oppurtunity and promptly stole home.

Zwyer then lined the next pitch back to the fence for a ground-rule RBI-double that tied the game.

Koller followed with a sac fly to right, and Allenspach's fourth hit of the game gave the Flyers a 7-5 lead.

Marchant managed to retire the next two batters to end the threat, but the damage was already done.

Starter Clinton came back for the final inning and gave up only one more unearned run for the final score of 7-6, ending the Challengers' winning-streak at 10.

Game notes
The Challengers are 0-5 in their last five encounters against the Flyers.