Challengers tie Series with 4-2 win, force deciding Game 5

With the Challengers facing elimination from the Playoffs, they answered with a 4-2 in Game 4, forcing a winner-takes-it-all Game 5 at the Heerenschürli next Saturday.

Just like a week ago, Harry Bregy had his best stuff going, but this time, he got just enough support to pick up the well-deserved W.

He allowed only two runs - one of them unearned - on just three hits and seven walks, while striking out a career-high 13 batters. It was his record sixth win of the season, going the distance for the fourth time, also a new career-high.

The game unfolded slowly as the Eagles put on one run in the second inning on Pete Soskin's RBI-single.

The Challengers responded in the next inning by getting two runs on Thomas Landis' two-run homer with two outs.

In the top of the fourth, things turned ugly for the Eagles as catcher Whitney Pierce was ejected from the game by plate umpire Francisco Pablos. An argument ensued after Adrian Kämpfer">Adrian Kämpfer was hit on the helmet by Jerome Müller. Apparently, Pierce said some words that Pablos didn't like, and he didn't hesitate to give him the thumb.

With their star catcher out of the lineup, the Challengers smelled blood and knew they had to profit from this opportunity.

But instead, the Eagles tied the game in the bottom of the fifth on Tom Huston's RBI-ground-rule double.

After that, Bregy settled down, and the Challengers defense stepped up to make the necessary plays.

But they were left facing hard-throwing lefthander Pete Soskin from the sixth inning on, and it looked bad for the Challengers right on.

Soskin struck out four of the nine batters he faced in the sixth and seven innings, and he showed no signs of fatigue after pitching two innings the day before.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dario D'Angelo led off with a line drive to center field, and the ball was thought to be out of the park. But Landis reached over the fence and robbed D'Angelo of a home run.

In the top of the eighth, the Challengers finally got to Soskin. Landis reached on second baseman Manu Steiner's fielding miscue, and scored on Chris Palatinus' single to right field for a 3-2 lead. Thomas Blank followed with a single to put runners on the corners with one out, but Kämpfer and pinch-hitter Thomas Burger both struck out looking to end the threat.

In the ninth, Saentis Zeller and Landis hit back-to-back singles with two outs, and Tobias Siegrist lifted a 1-1 offering from Soskin over the right field fences for an RBI-ground-rule double to give his team a 4-2 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning and one out, Oliver Holenstein hit a grounder to third baseman Blank, who booted the ball, but turned around, picked it up and fired to first to beat the runner just in time.

D'Angelo received a free pass to put the tying run at the plate, but Müller hit a hard grounder to shortstop Zeller who played the ball perfectly and got the final out at first.

The Series will now shift back to Zurich for the all-deciding Game 5, to be played at the Heerenschürli on September 15.

Game notes
The 13 strikeouts were the most by a single Challengers pitcher since Benny Räber's 15-strikeout performance against the Sissach Frogs on August 8, 1999. ...Bregy also set a new personal record by walking seven batters.