Challengers complete Opening Day sweep with 9-2 win

The Challengers completed their perfect Opening Day by taking the second contest from the Reussbuhl Eagles 9-2.

Playing as the home team in Embrach due to the renovations of the Heerenschürli, the Challengers left no doubt that they wanted to erase last year’s Opening Day loss that led to a miserable season last year with them ending up missing the Playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons.

Just like in Game 1, the Challengers quickly built up a commanding lead and never looked back. Player coach James Sanders started on the mound and made quick work oft he helpless Eagle batters. Jerome Müller was the only baserunner that reached base thanks to a walk.

Rarely-used pitcher Tobias Siegrist continued Sanders‘ dominance by retiring the first five batters he faced before Tom Enz reached on an error by third baseman Carlos Peña with two outs in the fourth.

In the meantime, the Challengers roughed up the Eagles‘ pitching and defense, scoring eight runs – five of them unearned due to six errors, three passed balls and a wild pitch.

Sanders then summoned Willy Schaub to pitch the fifth inning, but the choice was a bad one as Schaub couldn’t find the strike zone and walked and hit-by-pitch the only three batters he faced.

Sanders again took the mound and pitched two more innings, giving up only one more single and no runs.

Yonimiler Martinez closed out the game by retiring three of the four batters he faced.

Game notes
Landis has 92 career RBIs against the Eagles, the most against any NLA-team.