Challengers advance to Finals by sweeping Eagles in three straight

The Challengers swept their best-of-five Semifinal Series against the Reussbühl Eagles by beating them 18-6 in Game 3 on Sunday at the Heerenschürli.

	Roger Brunner bettered his record to 4-0 on the season by throwing five strong innings.

Just like in Game 1, the Challengers took a quick lead at the beginning of the game to put the game out of reach early on.

They sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning which scored eight runs off starter Manu Steiner.

Steiner lasted only 1-3 inning before being relieved by Jerome Müller after having pitched to nine batters.

Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer capped the inning with his third homer of the year and 30th of his NLA-career.

After a scoreless second inning, center fielder Thomas Landis committed a rare fielding error to start the third inning. Another blunder by catcher Tobias Siegrist and five hits off starter Roger Brunner brought the Eagles within 8-6, but that was the closest they got all day.

The Challengers got three runs back right away on back-to-back RBI-singles by Landis and Manny Marchant, plus a wild pitch that scored Marchant from third.

	Manny Marchant went 3-for-5, further extending his lead in batting average.

The Challengers continued to combine timely hitting and the lack of defense by the Eagles to put run after run on the board.

Reliever Juan Peralta balked twice in the fourth inning, and two errors and two hits by Blickenstorfer and Anubis Benitez gave the Challengers a 16-6 lead after five innings.

Brunner was finished after that, picking up his fourth victory in as many decisions by giving up six runs - three of them unearned - on nine hits and three walks while also striking out six.

Reliever Harry Bregy pitched the final two innings, but not without any trouble.

He gave up two hits and a walk to the first three batters he faced in the top of the sixth inning, but then struck out both René Plüss and Juan Peralta and got Marcel Enz to line out to first to end the threat.

The Challengers added two more runs to their total on back-to-back RBI-doubles by Siegrist and Brunner.

Bregy faced four more batters in the top of the seventh inning, striking out one of them and getting two of them out on ground balls, and the game was called due to the 10-run mercy rule.

The Challengers will now face the Therwil Flyers - who also swept last year's Champions Bern Cardinals - at the Heerenschürli on September 14 in Game 1 of the Finals.

Game notes
Every Challenger starter had at least two hits in a 22-hit offensive performance. It marked the highest total of hits this season. ...Blickenstorfer's homer gave him 300 career total bases. ...Siegrist doubled in his 300th career NLA at-bat in the sixth inning.