Challengers flawless in 5-1 victory

The Challengers played an errorless game for the first time in almost a year to beat the Geneva Dragons 5-1 in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader at the Heerenschürli.

	Roger Brunner allowed only three hits and three walks all day.

Roger Brunner pitched a complete-game three-hitter, backed up by a flawless defense.

Only six Dragons reached base, but only two of them ever got as far as third base.

Catcher Tobias Siegrist threw out two possible base stealers to cut down the Dragons' running game.

The Challengers scored first on Adrian Kämpfer">Adrian Kämpfer's perfect bunt down the third base line in the second inning.

The Dragons tied the score in the next inning on Correia's RBI-single.

But the Challengers came right back and scored two runs off national team pitcher Raphael Ferry.

Thomas Landis hit an RBI-single, and later scored on a passed ball that got away from catcher Bruno Tolfo for yet another unearned run.

	Thomas Landis was the only player in the game with two hits.

That was all Brunner and his teammates needed to beat the Dragons.

They added two more insurance runs in the fourth inning on Landis' RBI-double, and an obstruction play by catcher Tolfo.

The Dragons got runner Nick Lehmann in a rundown between third and home, but home-plate umpire Roger Savoldelli called obstruction on Tolfo as he didn't manage to get out of the way after throwing the ball to third.

There were no more runs scored in the final three innings, and the game ended after just 1:50.

The Challengers had only eight hits, but scored five runs out of it, also profiting from five errors by the Dragons' defense.

The game was the first Championship game by a Challengers' NLA-team since June 10, 1995 when the Geneva Hound Dogs beat the Challengers 14-4.

Four players who played today were also on that team: Brunner, Landis, Lehmann and Chris Palatinus.

Game notes
Brunner's complete game was his first since throwing a shutout against the Embrach Rainbows on August 19, 2001. It was his 12th of his career, tying Enrico Zingg for 5th place on the alltime list. ...Landis' single in the third inning gives him 900 career total bases. ...The Challengers last played an errorless game on May 11, 2003 against the Rainbows.