Challengers hand Waite first loss in 5-3 upset

After having qualified for the Playoffs in surprising fashion with an 11-8 win in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader, the load was off the Challengers' shoulders.

Nevertheless, they played one more good game and handed Benji Waite and the Bern Cardinals another defeat with a 5-3 upset.

Waite was 10-0 coming into the game with an ERA of 0.84. But the Challengers quickly scored their first run as Robert Sedin singled and stole second, and came around to score on second baseman Edwin Hernandez' throwing error.

That would be only the first of six errors by the Cardinals' defense, making three of the five runs Waite allowed unearned.

The Cardinals came back in the second inning and tied the game on Miro Bussmann's RBI-single with two outs off Harry Bregy.

Bregy, starting in only his second game of the season, wound up pitching five effective innings in which he allowed two runs on four hits and two walks, while striking out one.

His offense gave him the lead on Sedin's RBI-triple in the third, followed by Tobias Siegrist's RBI-single up the middle for a 3-1 lead.

The Cardinals got one run back in the fourth on yet another RBI-single by Bussmann to cut the Challengers' lead to 3-2.

But a solid fifth inning, in which Bregy retired three of the top four batters in the Cardinals' lineup, put him in line for the victory.

Andrea Girasole came on to relieve, but he started by walking Raphael Hänzi. Imboden's single put runners on first and third, and Bussmann came through for the third time to plate Hänzi with the tying run.

Girasole struck out Hernandez and got Angelo Rodriguez to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

Girasole (8-4) pitched a scoreless seventh against the top of the lineup, and his offense rewarded him with the win as they profited from one more error in the infield and an RBI-single by Siegrist that extended the Challengers' lead to 5-3.

Sedin was called upon to pitch the final two innings. He allowed only Hänzi's leadoff single in the eighth, but quickly erased him when he got caught stealing third for the third out. A perfect ninth earned him his second win of the season.

Game notes
The Challengers won their season series against the Cardinals for the first time since 2002. ...Girasole became the first Challenger pitcher to win eight games since Thomas Landis did it in 2004. ...Sedin tied the Challengers' single season record with his third triple. ...The top four batters in the Cardinals' lineup went a combined 0-for-13.