Challengers outlast Eagles in 9-5 win

Andrea Girasole delivered another fine performance on the mound, and the Challengers evened their record at 5-5 with a 9-5 win against the Lucerne Eagles in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader at the Heerenschürli.

Girasole (4-2) shut out the Eagles through the first six innings, retiring 15 batters in a row at one point. He picked up his fourth win of the season by allowing only a single run on a triple by Yanik Probst and a wild pitch, while walking four and striking out eight over seven innings.

Tobias Siegrist was the only player of the game with more than one hit, going 2-for-4 and raising his batting average to .394.

After opening the score in the second inning, the Challengers were shut out in the third, fourth and fifth innings by Stefan Haltmeier.

They bust the score wide open in the bottom of the sixth as they sent nine batters to the plate and scored five times for a 6-0 lead. Two errors led to four unearned runs, and that was all the Challengers needed in the end.

Thomas Burger relieved Girasole to start the eight inning, but he left the game after three batters due to soreness in his throwing arm.

Siegrist took over and was greeted by back-to-back RBI-singles by Rene Plüss and former Challenger Jesus Martinez.

The Challengers came storming back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three times off reliever Mario Cuevas on a wild pitch, an error by second baseman Reyes and Chris Palatinus' RBI-single, extending their lead to 9-3.

The Eagles had one more shot in the top of the ninth, and they promptly scored two more runs on a walk, an RBI-double by Alex Cruz Tifa and a run-scoring ground out by Tom Enz.

But Siegrist retired Rodolfo Vargas on a 5-3 ground out to end the game.

Game notes
The Challengers equaled their 2008 and 2009 record through the first 10 games by going 5-5. They were 4-6 in 2010 and 2011. ...Palatinus came back from retirement due to absences of four regulars.