Challengers score early, hang on for 6-5 win in season opener

After two rainouts, the Challengers were finally able to open their 2013 campaign as the last team in the NLA.

They roughed up starter Lucas Croton and reliever Stefan Koller for five runs in the first three innings, and withstood a late rally to take Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader 6-5 against the Therwil Flyers.

Rookie Eidrys Reyes went 3-for-3, with an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored, and both Saentis Zeller and Robert Sedin added two hits apiece, with Sedin collecting two RBIs.

Croton pitched only one inning before being lifted due to a sore arm. He allowed RBI-singles by Sedin and Reyes, while also walking three batters.

After walking the leadoff batter in the second inning, reliever Koller got two quick outs, but a passed ball by Sven Leemann and Sedin’s RBI-double pushed two more runs across the plate for a 4-0 lead.

Meanwhile, Tobias Siegrist pitched a shutout, allowing only two baserunners in the first four innings. In the fifth, Taka Oshima led off with a double that was misplayed by right fielder Bryan Shemley, followed by a single off Hide Oshima’s bat that scored the first run for the Flyers.

Four batters later, Adrian Kaufmann’s RBI-double cut the Challengers’ lead to 5-2.

After four innings, Hide Oshima relieved Koller on the mound to pitch the final three innings. He was greeted by Zeller’s single, who eventually came around to score the pivotal run on two wild pitches.

Siegrist was done after seven innings of work, having allowed two runs on eight hits and no walks, while also striking out six.

Andrea Girasole took over and got two quick outs, but that’s when things started to get interesting. Taka Oshima singled, and Hide Oshima plated him with an RBI-triple past the diving right fielder Carlos Nepomuceno.

After a walk to pinch-hitter Seppi Zwyer, Sven Leemann followed with an RBI-single, as Girasole couldn’t field the ball cleanly, and even threw it over first baseman Harry Bregy’s head, enabling Zwyer to score all the way from first, and advancing Leemann to third.

After a little conversation on the mound, Girasole induced Josh Tamba to ground into an inning-ending 3-1 play.

After that, Girasole settled down and pitched a perfect ninth, retiring the big bats of Kaufmann, Koller and Daniel Eichenberger in order.

Game notes
Siegrist has pitched 75 1-3 innings in his career against the Flyers, the most against any NLA-team. …Zeller reached on Kaufmann’s fielding error in the eighth inning in what was his 900th at-bat in the NLA, fourth on the Challengers’ all-time list behind Thomas Landis, Chris Palatinus and Siegrist.