Challengers improve to 4-0 with 19-14 victory

After a good first game, the Challengers looked forward to take another game from the Reussbühl Eagles in Game 2 of Sunday's doubleheader, but it again took four innings for the Challengers to decide the game, eventually winning 19-14.

	Jose Valdez came out of retirement to contribute with six RBI's.

With both teams fighting to find head umpire Reto Götschi's strike zone, the game took three hours and featured a combined 20 walks.

Benny Räber again took the mound after getting the win in Game 1 by pitching four innings, but he didn't survive the second inning and was lifted for southpaw Harry Bregy.

By that time, the Eagles had taken a 7-5 lead, and the Challengers lost shortstop Patrick Zöllig after being hit in the shin by a bad hop.

Manager Andy Fleischacker shuffled his lineup card, moving Zöllig to right field, Manny Marchant to left and Anubis Benitez to shortstop.

The Challengers managed to regain an 8-7 lead after two innings on Thomas Landis' RBI-double, and Jose Valdez' two-run homer, his first of the season.

Bregy allowed two more runs in the top of the third inning on Marcel Enz's two-run single that gave the lead back to the Eagles at 9-8.

	The Challengers did a lot of baserunning, stealing seven bases but also getting caught three times.

After shutting down the Challengers' offense in the bottom of the third inning, the Eagles added one more run off Bregy in the next inning to take a 10-8 lead.

But like in Game 1, the Challengers broke out in the bottom of the fourth inning against reliever Mano Steiner.

The Challengers led off with three consecutive hits by Kurt Kovac, Landis and Valdez.

Chris Palatinus' RBI-double and Bregy's two-run single extended the Challengers' lead to 14-10, and they never looked back afterwards.

	Anubis Benitez now shares the batting average lead with Thomas Landis after getting a game-high three hits - two of them doubles.

Reliever Marchant took over on the mound and held on to the lead by allowing only three runs over the next 1 1-3 innings.

Landis had to take over to close the game, and he gave up only an unearned run in the final 1 2-3 innings, preserving a perfect 0.00 ERA over 6 2-3 innings this season.

By that time, Fleischacker further experimented with his defensive positionings, moving Palatinus to center field, Zöllig to second base and Valdez to first.

In both games, the Eagles wasted a lot of scoring chances as they left 11 runners on the bases in each of both games, while the Challengers had only three and six baserunners left on, respectively.

Game notes
Benitez' stolen base in the fourth inning was his 100th with the Challengers. ...Landis' single in the fourth inning was his 400th hit of his NLA-career.