Challengers take Series opener on Martinez' walk-off single

The Challengers, having qualified themselves the day before thanks to an 8-6 victory over the Therwil Flyers, beat the very same team a day later 6-5 in the opener of this year's best-of-5 Semifinals Series.

In the bottom of the ninth, Yonimiler Martinez tied the game with an RBI-triple, and Jesus Martinez lifted a little blooper just over the head of first baseman Daniel Eichenberger to seal the Challengers' victory.

Although the Flyers outhit their opponents 14-8, and had six hits with runners in scoring position, they couldn't get to starter Tobias Siegrist.

The top three batters in the Challengers lineup were a combined 0-for-12, but the 4-5-6 batters picked up the slack for them. Brian Hipps had two hits, including his second homer at the new Heerenschürli ballpark, Yonimiler Martinez hit the game-tying triple after going 0-for-2 in his previous four plate appearances, and Jesus Martinez hit the game-winning single to upset the favorites Flyers.

Siegrist and Flyers starter Lukas Croton matched each other over six innings, with Siegrist ending up as the winner. He picked up his sixth win of the season - tying his career high -, allowing five runs on 14 hits and three walks while also striking out five.

The Challengers took the lead in the second inning on an RBI-single by Tom Huston, the only other hit the Challengers had with runners in scoring position.

The Flyers went on to seize the lead in the next inning on Takanobu Oshima's RBI-single and a sacrifice fly by Stefan Koller.

The Challengers knotted the score at 2-2 in the fifth on Hipps' line drive homer over the right field fences.

The Flyers left runners in scoring position with less than two outs in the third, fourth and fifth innings, before finally cashing in in the sixth inning. Adrian Kaufmann reached on an opposite field single, stole second, and two batters later was plated by Sebastian Zwyer's RBI-double.

But Zwyer was left stranded, as well, as Reto Siegel popped out to the shortstop and Takanobu Oshima struck out swinging.

The tune continued for the Flyers in the seventh inning as they left the bases loaded without scoring.

Koller was summoned to take the hill with his team trailing 3-4. He only walked hot-hitting Yonimiler Martinez, but retired the three other batters he faced.

In the top of the eighth, starter Croton was off the hook as slugger Eichenberger finally came through and hit a double to deep center field that scored Siegel from second. But Eichenberger was also stranded as Koller popped out weakly to second.

Adrian Kaufmann took over from Koller to start the bottom half of the eighth, and he worked himself out of a jam as he struck out looking with runners at second and third.

The Flyers kept going in the top half of the ninth inning as Emanuel Raouzeos plated Ianis Bouteloup with a sharp single down the right field line.

Siegrist retired Zwyer for the final out, keeping the Flyers to a one-run lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, it was like déjà vu for Kaufmann. He walked Hipps to lead off the inning, followed by Yonimiler Martinez' triple, and Jesus Martinez' game-winner.

Game 2 and 3 will be played in Therwil on September 18 and 25.

Game notes
Kaufmann blew the save in last year's memorable Game 4 of the Semifinals as he was just one strike away from retiring the final batter before allowing two runs to the Challengers to send the game into extra innings and eventually losing 4-3 in the 11th inning to force a Game 5. ...Siegrist set a new career high as he faced a total of 45 batters.