Cardinals push Challengers to the edge, take 2-1 Series lead

Severin Fries and the Bern Cardinals once again proved to be too strong for the Challengers.

	Thomas Landis lost his second game of the season and his first ever against the Cards.

Four runs in the first inning were enough to beat a lackluster Challenger team that scored only three runs on six hits, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-5 Semifinals Series.

On the other hand, Thomas Landis worked six innings, and allowed seven earned runs on 11 hits, two walks and a career-high five hit-by-pitches, also striking out three.

It was Landis' first career loss in 11 decisions against the Cardinals.

Landis struggled early on and allowed five singles and a base-on-balls in the first inning, giving the Cards a quick 4-0 lead.

The Challengers answered with an unearned run off Fries, profiting from second baseman Sandro Negro's ground ball error.

The two teams exchanged zeros on the board in the third and fourth innings, with both Landis and Fries getting good defensive backup.

Both infields turned a double play each in those innings.

The Cardinals' infield already had a double play in the second inning, and defense wasn't really the issue on this day.

	Triple crown leader Manny Marchant got a hit in his final at-bat, finishing the game with a 1-for-4 performance.

The Cards added one more run in the bottom of the fifth inning on Vitus Huber's run-scoring ground out for a 5-1 lead.

The Challengers managed to get only one runner as far as third base from the third through the seventh inning while Fries kept rolling.

Landis' high pitch count started to show in the bottom of the seventh inning as the first three batters led off with three consecutive singles.

Manny Marchant replaced him and only allowed an RBI-double before ending the inning.

The Challengers then sensed some morning air as they were able to score two runs off Fries, but the team's optimism was quickly blown out by Fries' strong pitching.

In the eighth inning, a blatant misjudgment by base umpire Mark Imhof led to some angry words.

An apparent ground rule double by Marco Haas was turned into a two-run homer to the surprise of everybody.

Imhof said that the ball never hit the ground before jumping over the fence, but he was alone in his judgment.

The bad call didn't really affect the game, but again proved that umpiring remains the achilles tendon of close Playoff games.

Game notes
Marchant doubled in his 450th NLA at-bat in the eighth inning. ...Landis set a new career-high by hitting 23 batters in a season. He twice hit five batters in a game alone this season. ...The six combined hit-by-pitches by Landis and Manny Marchant tied the franchise record for a single game, last accomplished also against the Cards on April 16, 2000.