Challengers rock Coma, hold on to 9-4 victory

The Challengers had to change something to be able to win Game 2 of Sunday's doubleheader against the Zurich Barracudas.

They did just that by playing a much better game both defense- and offense-wise.

They committed just one error, and also outhit their opponents 10-6, with four of those hits going for extra-bases.

And starter Oliver Labhart (1-0) contributed his part by throwing his first complete game for his first ever win in the NLA.

The Challengers got to starter Nderim Coma in the second inning by getting three hits and a walk for just one run.

Coma survived the threat by getting Thomas Blank to hit into a bases-loaded fielder's choice at home, and Bregy to hit an inning-ending fly out to center field.

But Coma didn't see land in the next inning.

Chris Palatinus and Tobias Siegrist reached on a base-on-balls and a hit-by-pitch before Anthony Bennett connected for his first homer with his new team.

Anubis Benitez followed with a solo shot to push the score to 5-0.

And the Challengers kept firing as Vedran Blazevic followed with a single, and Saentis Zeller hit a double.

That was it for Coma, and on came junkballer Farid Bekkali.

He promptly struck out Perez and Blank for the first two outs.

But then he walked Bregy to fill up the bases, and another walk to Palatinus scored another run.

He then drilled Siegrist with a pitch for another run, and Bennett didn't have to swing the bat, as well, scoring one more run and ending Bekkali's short stint on the mound.

The Barracudas called upon closer James Sanders to finally finish the inning and keep the damage in check.

He just did that by ringing up Benitez on three strikes.

The long inning didn't affect Labhart's pitching in the next inning as Sanders was the only baserunner that reached in the next inning.

He also cruised through a 1-2-3 fifth inning before eventually running into trouble in the sixth frame.

Back-to-back walks to open the inning spelled trouble early on, and the Barracudas profited from that.

Manuel Hirtz and Miguel Conde both hit RBI-singles, and Coma added an RBI-double to cut the Challengers' lead to 8-3.

The Challengers managed to score a run off reliever Ueli Von Burg on Nick Lehmann's ground rule RBI-double.

The Barracudas managed to score one more unearned run off Labhart in the final inning, but in the end, the Challengers hung on to a well-deserved 9-4 win, evening their record at 2-2.

Game notes
Benitez' homer was his 44th with the Challengers, tying Manny Marchant for fourth place on the all-time list. ...The Challengers' 2-2 start into the season is the worst since starting 0-3 in 1997.