NLA Game 17, Sep. 02, 06
CAR
1| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardinals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Challengers | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| W: Burger, Th. L: Fries | ||||||||||
CHA
2Burger outduels Fries, gets help from unlikely hero
Two national team pitchers faced off in Game 1 of Saturday's crucial doubleheader at the Heerenschürli, with the youngster being the unexpected winner.
Perez hits a walkoff double in the seventh inning.
Burger didn't allow any runs before balking home the only Cardinals' run in the top of the seventh.
His offense gave him a 1-0 lead on Chris Palatinus' run-scoring fielder's choice in the third inning.
Other than that, the Challengers didn't do much against Fries.
After tying the game on his on failure, Burger was stilll given the win on a hit from an unexpected source.
Patrick Zöllig singled and advanced to second base on left fielder Pessina's fielding error with one out.
Up came Ramon Perez who appeared in just two games before this contest. But he stepped up and lined a double over the right field fences to push across Zöllig with the winning run.
The Cardinals wasted several great scoring opportunities early in the game. They had runners on third base in each of the first four innings, and they even left the bases loaded with one out without scoring in the third inning.
Game notes
The Challengers' last walkoff win came on June 5, 2005 when Siegrist's RBI-single won in against the Bern Cardinals. Since then, the Challengers lost five times on the opponents' final at-bat. ...With one more win, the Challengers would wrap up a Playoff berth for sure.