Barracudas roll past Challengers 14-1

The slumping Challengers faced off against their crosstown rivals Zurich Barracudas in a night game at the Heerenschürli, getting outhit 14-7 and losing the game 14-1.

The Barracudas set the tone early on as they took advantage of two walks, a hit-by-pitch and two singles given up by starter Tobias Siegrist to go up 2-0 in the first frame.

On the other end, Swiss National Team member Frank Berchtold used a good mix of fastballs and breaking balls to shut out the Challengers in the first three innings.

The Barracudas tacked on one more run in the fourth on Marcel Ochsner's RBI-single for a 3-0 lead.

The Challengers scored their first run in the bottom half of the inning on Siegrist's RBI-double.

The Cudas came right back and restored their 3-run lead on Francisco Colindres' RBI-single in the top of the fifth.

Siegrist did a nice job after that, retiring the next four batters to keep the Barracudas' lead at 4-1 after six innings.

But in the top of the seventh, Nderim Coma's double scored both Cody Hightower and Michael Settle.

Thomas Burger relieved Siegrist in the top of the eighth and was tagged for three runs on a hit-by-pitch, a walk, a triple and a double, giving the Barracudas a commanding 9-1 lead.

Yanik Probst was summoned to pitch the final inning, but didn't manage to close it out as he conceded five more runs - two of them unearned - on four hits and two walks for the final score of 14-1.

Berchtold started the ninth inning seeking to complete the game, but was removed after he walked leadoff batter Bryan Shemley.

Coma took over and pitched a perfect 1-2-3 to end the game.

Game notes
The Challengers went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. ...Siegrist moved past Roger Brunner into 6th place on the alltime list for strikeouts with 217. ...Martinez' double in the eighth inning was his 100th hit with the Challengers. ...Carl Conway went 0-for-4, ending his hitting streak at eight games.