Challengers' victory a gift by Cards' defense

The Challengers didn’t have to do much to get a step closer to this year’s Playoffs – the Bern Cardinals themselves handed them the game.

	Thomas Landis missed his second consecutive shutout by just one single run.

A shaky Cardinal defense that committed eight errors combined with another great pitching performance by Thomas Landis paved the way for the Challengers’ success.

Landis pitched his second consecutive complete game and earned his second win a row after losing a career-high five straight decisions.

He allowed only a single run en route to a comfortable 11-1 win.

His Game Score of 64 was his second best this season.

The Challengers started to score early as Landis crossed the plate in the first inning on first baseman Sandro Negro's mishandle of right fielder Aris Javier's throw.

They extended their lead by scoring two more in the third.

Shortstop Severin Fries threw the ball away on a fielder's choice grounder and Chris Hardy's single scored Anubis Benitez for a temporary 3-0 lead.

The Bern defense then completely fell apart in the fifth inning as no less than four errors were made.

The costliest came when – with the bases loaded and one out – reliever Fries made a wide throw on Benitez’ comebacker to the mound, spoiling the chances of turning a possible double play and getting out of the inning.

The Challengers went on to score one more run in the inning, extending their lead to 7-1.

By scoring four more unearned runs in the sixth frame, the Challengers completed their highest win against a Cardinal team since also winning 11-1 on August 26, 2001.

With that win, the Challengers forced the Cardinals to win the second game by a margin of 10 or more runs to have a chance themselves to go to the Final Four.

Game notes
Landis has allowed only a single run to score in his final 14 innings, lowering his ERA to 5.61. …Patrick Zöllig collected his 100th total base and later scored the 100th run in his NLA-career as he singled and later crossed the plate in the sixth inning. …Roger Brunner has tied Saentis Zeller for eighth place on the alltime list for doubles by hitting his 47th double of his NLA-career in the fifth inning. …Thomas Blank went 2-for-4, making him 5-for-11 in his last three games.