Challengers jump on Frogs early, win 12-3

The Challengers kept riding their winning streak and improved to 5-0 in the Qualification Round by beating the Sissach Frogs 12-3 in game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.

	Manny Marchant went 4-for-5 to improve his team-leading batting average to .500.

The Challengers scored early on, and held a comfortable 12-0 lead after five innings thanks to a strong offensive display and Thomas Landis' fine performance on the mound.

He went six innings and struck out a season-high eight batters en route to his fourth win of the year.

He matched his last year's record of 4-1.

The Challengers scored in the first inning on Manny Marchant's RBI-double, and Jose Valdez' RBI-single.

Landis added a two-run double that he tried to stretch into a triple in the second inning, but failed to do so.

The Challengers doubled their runs total on Chris Palatinus' RBI-double and on three errors by a shaky Frog defense.

Valdez' RBI-single, Palatinus' two-run double and Nick Lehmann's RBI-single in the fourth inning extended the Challengers' lead to 12-0 off starter Ivano Piaia.

The Frogs managed to put their first runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning on a run-scoring ground out by Stephan Lüthy and an RBI-double by Stephan Wick.

But Landis (4-1) retired the next two batters to keep a 10-run margin.

Marchant took over and worked the final inning, striking out two batters, but also forcing in a run by hitting Lüthy with a pitch and the bases loaded.

Game notes
The victory was the ninth in a row against the Frogs, with the last loss dating back to September 6, 1998 when the Challengers lost 4-3 in the final inning of the first Playoff Semifinal game. ...Valdez has tied Enrico Zingg for 2nd place on the Challengers alltime list for hits with 239. Landis is first with 425.