Challengers win in late innings 10-4

It took the Challengers seven innings to get going, putting away the Lucerne Eagles 10-4 in Game 1 of Saturday's doubleheader.

Carlos Peña went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored, four other Challengers had two hits, and Tobias Siegrist pitched four innings in relief for his team-leading fifth win of the season.

Chris Palatinus pitched the first five innings, leaving the game trailing 3-1 after the Eagles profited from two defensive blunders in the fifth inning that broke Palatinus' shutout bid.

The Challengers came back in the bottom half of the inning with three runs on their own. Yonimiler Martinez and Brian Hipps hit back-to-back RBI-singles, and Palatinus gave himself the lead with a sac fly to center field.

The Eagles tied the score in the seventh inning off reliever Siegrist on two more errors by the Challengers' defense.

But the Challengers came right back, scoring three more runs in the bottom half of the inning on Jay Casimiro's two-run double, and Palatinus' run-scoring ground out off reliever Stefan Haltmeier for a 7-4 lead.

Siegrist (5-3) kept the Eagles in check, denying any runner past first base in the final two innings.

The Challengers tacked on three more in the bottom of the eighth on a two-run single by Yonimiler Martinez and Farid Bekkali's RBI-single over the infield.

Game notes
Peña singled in the top of the third inning for the 7'000th hit in Challengers history. ....Siegrist followed Peña's single with a single of his own, his 400th career hit. ...Ueli von Burg returned to the lineup, appearing as a pinch-runner in the seventh inning.