Challengers survive in extra innings, send Cards packing for the winter

Roger Brunner and Severin Fries dueled for six innings in Game 2 of Saturday’s doubleheader, before the game was decided in extra innings.

Another error by the Bern Cardinals decided the game in favor of the Challengers in the bottom of the eighth inning, giving them a berth in this year’s Playoffs and ending the Cardinals’s season prematurely.

It was kind of a sweet revenge for last year’s loss in the Playoff Semifinals.

Last year, the Challengers lost a hard-fought Series in five games.

The Cardinals went on to the Finals but were overmatched by the Therwil Flyers in four games.

This time, the Challengers prevailed and their hopes of another national title is still intact.

Just as in Game 1, the Challengers had a good start and scored in the first inning on Nick Lehmann's RBI-double with two outs.

That was it as Brunner and Fries threw superbly, exchanging zeros on the board for the next five innings.

	Nick Lehmann collected all three Challenger RBI's in the game.

The Cards struck back in the top of the sixth as Imboden reached on a single, went to second on Negro’s sacrifice bunt, and later scored on Jose Castillo’s single.

The scored remained 1-1 after the regular seven innings of play.

Harry Bregy was on the mound for the Challengers from the seventh inning on, but ran into trouble in the top of the eighth.

Two singles and an error by third baseman Chris Palatinus on an easy grounder off Castillo’s bat pushed one run across the plate, giving the Cards a 2-1 edge.

Bregy (3-2) managed to get out of the inning by retiring Fries on a pop fly to first baseman Adrian Kämpfer">Adrian Kämpfer.

Bregy led off the bottom half of the inning thanks to yet another error, Anubis Benitez sacrificed him over to second base, and substitute Kämpfer’s bunt single loaded the bases with just one out.

Next up was Lehmann who was used as a substitute in the first game, and now was catching for injured Tobias Siegrist.

He lined a clean single to left field, scoring both Bregy and Landis for the 3-2 win.

This win gives the Challengers a satisfying 4-4 record in the Qualification Round, meaning that they will finish in the standings not worse than third place and thus avoiding to play the Flyers before a possible Finals.

Game notes
Lehmann collected all three Challengers RBI’s of the game. …Siegrist is day-to-day and should be ready to start Game 1 of the Playoff Semifinals.