Challengers' bats stall in 4-3 loss to Indians

Although outhitting their opponents 11-5, the Challengers lose in 11 innings to a subpar Lausanne Indians squad.

They left 10 runners on base, seven of them in scoring position, and batted a poorly 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position for their third straight loss in 2010, and their seventh in a row to the Indians.

Damien Baumann tossed all 11 innings for the Indians, allowing only one unearned run on 11 hits and one base-on-balls. 21 of the 33 outs came on fly balls or line drives as he rattled the Challengers with his offspeed stuff.

Thomas Burger started for the Challengers, but had to leave in the second inning due to a blister on his middle finger of his throwing hand.

Chris Palatinus relieved and went on to pitch the next nine innings, matching his career high set on August 5, 1995.

The first run for the Indians came on a bases-loaded walk issued by Palatinus in the bottom of the second inning, erasing the Challengers' first run that came on a deep sac fly by Jesus Martinez.

In the bottom of the third, the Indians tacked on two more runs on Jon Walls' sac fly to right, and an RBI-single by Fabrice Gendre.

The Challengers got one run back in the top of the fifth on Ueli von Burg's run-scoring ground out. They tied the game at 3 apiece in the seventh inning on shortstop Jay Casimiro's fielding error.

The two teams exchanged zeros for the next three innings, with the Challengers stranding runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth inning.

The Indians wasted a big opportunity in the bottom of the tenth inning as Virgile Roux ran into an unnecessary 1-5 pickoff, and Julien eventually got thrown out trying to steal second.

In the top of the 11th, the Challengers quicly loaded the bases with no outs on two singles, and a hit-by-pitch. But Thomas Landis hit a sharp line drive to first baseman Walls, doubling Thomas Blank off first. Von Burg popped out to second to end the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, Tobias Siegrist relieved Palatinus and allowed leadoff batter Casimiro to reach. His grounder was misplayed by shortstop Carlos Peña, who just entered for Palatinus in the top half of the inning. Casimiro quickly stole second and third, but was retired on a 1-5-2-1 fielder's choice at third base.

Siegrist then tried to nail down the runner at second base instead of holding on to the ball, but his throw sailed into the outfield, past the drawn in outfielders, enabling the winning run to score all the way.

Game notes
The Challengers' last win against the Indians came on May 19, 2007. ...Palatinus' triple in the second inning was his 400th hit in the NLA. Palatinus also tied Manny Marchant for ninth place on the alltime list for innings pitched with 130. ...Siegrist went 0-for-5 and is mired in a 0-for-10 slump.