Challengers lose for first time in three years against Barracudas

The Zürich Barracudas were clearly determined to win at least one game of Saturday's doubleheader, enabling them to reach the next phase of the Championship.

	Thomas Landis had a team-high three hits, raising his batting average to .523.

They did just that by rallying from a 5-2 deficit, scoring three runs each in the fourth and fifth innings against starter Benny Räber and a struggling Challenger defense.

Anubis Benitez, replacing injured Patrick Zöllig at shortstop, committed two costly errors in those two innings, making three of those six runs unearned.

The Cudas broke a 1-1 tie by profiting from two errors in the second inning, giving them a 2-1 lead.

The Challengers came right back, though, scoring four times off starter Nderim Coma.

Jose Valdez had an RBI-single, and Manny Marchant's second homer of the season made it 5-2 in favor of the Challengers.

But the Barracudas kept scraping together run after run off Räber.

A run-scoring ground out by Juan Robles cut the Challengers' lead to 5-3.

Coma allowed only Thomas Landis' double in the fourth inning, keeping his team's hope for a victory alive.

After retiring the first batter of the inning, Räber (2-1) allowed Stefan Suter to reach on a single.

Ueli Von Burg and Manuel Hirtz followed with back-to-back doubles, tying the score at five apiece.

Benitez' first error of the season on Coma's ground ball two batters later allowed the Barracudas to take the lead.

	Nderim Coma gave the Challengers some headaches, giving up only five runs in four innings.

The Barrcudas brought in reliever Smith to pitch the final three innings, and it paid off.

He retired the first eight batters he faced, and only with two outs in the top of the seventh inning, Valdez managed to reach with a line drive single.

Marchant followed with yet another single, but Tobias Siegrist grounded into a fielder's choice to end the threat.

Smith was given a 9-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning as Von Burg and Hirtz repeated their back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning.

Von Burg ended up going 4-for-4 with four doubles.

Räber took the loss, his first since losing 16-5 to the Bern Cardinals on September 01, 2001.

Game notes
The Challengers last lost against their crosstown rivals on April 29, 2000. ...It was Räber's shortest outing of the season, and the shortest since pitching only 2 2-3 innings against the Cardinals on June 9, 2002.