Challengers even Series with 11-8 win in Therwil

The Challengers and Therwil Flyers again fought an epic neck-to-neck battle in which the team from Zürich came up as 11-8 winner.

	Landis led all Challengers with four hits, all of them doubles.

With the win, the Challengers tied the best-of-five Swiss Finals at 1-all.

After the first game of the Series which the Flyers won 12-3, many believed that the Challengers would roll over and concede.

But on Saturday, the Challengers showed how they returned to the Finals after a one-year absence.

Timely hitting, strong pitching and a solid defense all came together for the Champions of 1998 through 2000.

Manny Marchant gave his team a quick start thanks to a 2-0 homer off Stefan Koller in the first inning, his seventh of the season.

Coach Andy Fleischacker started Harry Bregy on the mound in an attempt to mix up the opposition's strategy.

No. 1 starter Thomas Landis was saved for later in the game, and it paid off.

After a scoreless first inning, the Flyers got to Bregy already in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs on two hits, two errors and two walks.

With the bases loaded, Bregy handed the ball over to reliever Marchant, who induced Seppi Zwyer to hit into a run-scoring fielder's choice for the second out.

	Reliever Manny Marchant pitched 3 2-3 innings, giving up only one earned run.

A botched double-steal attempt led to the third out without further damage, but the Flyers had taken a 3-2 lead.

After a scoreless third innning, the Challengers profited from a rare error by left fielder Jacob Clinton. He dove for Bregy's line drive, and appeared to have caught the ball, but as he rolled over, the ball popped out of his glove, enabling Jose Valdez to score all the way from first base.

Marchant then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half of the frame.

Second baseman Chris Palatinus snapped Zwyer's soft line drive up the middle, enabling to double Clinton off second base.

The Challengers then suddenly started to feast on Koller's pitching, getting big hits from their heart of the lineup.

Roger Brunner plated Landis with an RBI-double just before Armin Blickenstorfer">Armin Blickenstorfer launched his fourth homer of the year, a two-run shot that gave his team a 6-3 lead.

Marchant then again played with fire in the bottom of the fifth ininng.

Daniel Eichenberger led off with a homer, and player-coach Anthony Bennett reached on right fielder Landis' fielding error on a routine pop fly.

Roy Allenspach plated Bennett with an RBI-single to bring his team within 6-5, and with one out, Marchant loaded the bases by giving up a single to Djibril Traore and a base-on-balls to Nico Schenk.

But Marchant got Clinton to hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to preserve the Challengers' lead.

The Challengers were then held scoreless by closer Clinton in the next inning.

Coach Fleischacker summoned Landis to the mound to pitch the rest of the game, but his strategy almost backfired as Eichenberger's RBI-double with one out blew Landis' save.

Three hitters later, Koller boosted the Flyers' hopes by ripping a two-run triple into the deep right-field corner.

Landis survived the threat by retiring Traore on a ground out to end the inning.

	Starter Harry Bregy lasted only 1 1-3 innings.

But now the Challengers were standing at the foot of a big mountain, trailing 8-6 and facing Clinton for the final three innings.

The Challengers managed to get two hits off Clinton in 3 1-3 innings in Game 1 of the Finals, so things didn't look quite bright for them.

But Landis led off the seventh inning with his career-high fourth double of the game to give his team some hope.

Clinton then retired Marchant and Brunner before walking Blickenstorfer to bring up Palatinus.

Palatinus was one of two players who got a hit off Clinton last week, and he did it again as he slashed a two-out RBI-double into opposite field to prolong the inning.

But that was just the beginning as Valdez followed with a laser shot over the center field fences for his league-leading ninth homer of the year, giving his team a 10-8 lead.

That seemed to be too much of a shock for the Flyers who looked dazzled and were retired by Landis in order in the bottom half of the inning.

The Challengers added one more run in the eighth inning as catcher Schenk misplayed two dropped third strike, forcing Clinton to pitch five outs that inning.

The Flyers mounted one more threat in the bottom of the eighth as they loaded the bases thanks to three walks.

But Landis struck out Traore for the third out to again escape a big threat.

No runs were scored in the final inning, and so the Series is locked up at 1-1, making it now a best-of-three mini Series.

Game 3 will be held at the Heerenschürli in Zürich on September 28.

Game notes
Catcher Tobias Siegrist was robbed of two line drive hits thanks to a good defensive display by the Flyers, but he nevertheless collected his 200th total base in the NLA with a double in the eighth inning off Clinton.