Sedin, Sanders take care of Eagles in 3-2 win

After a dramatic 12-inning contest against the Lucerne Eagles in Game 1 of Sunday’s doubleheader at the Heerenschürli, the two teams entangled in yet another close affair.

The Challengers scored three early runs that were enough for starter Robert Sedin and reliever James Sanders, as they won the second contest 3-2 against James Chapman and the Eagles.

Sedin went 6 innings for the win, striking out nine batters and allowing only a single earned run on two hits and three walks, lowering his ERA to 2.12 in the process.

Sanders pitched the final three innings for his first career save with the Challengers, and also went 3-for-4 at the plate, scoring two of the three Challengers’ runs.

The Eagles jumped on Sedin in the first inning, scoring a run on a leadoff walk to Yanik Probst and two singles by Henry Delgado and Tom Enz.

But the Challengers got the run right back on Sanders’ one-out double, followed by Sedin’s triple to the right center field gap.

In the bottom of the third, the Challengers profited from two errors in the infield – one of three errors by shortstop Probst – to go up 3-1.

That scored lasted all the way through the ninth inning as Sedin mowed down the Eagles’ batters. A little threat in the sixth inning as shortstop Eidrys Reyes committed a throwing error and a walk to Enz to put two runners into scoring position was all the Eagles managed to put together against Sedin.

Sanders came on to pitch the seventh and quickly gave up two singles before getting Probst to strike out for the third out.

The Eagles put on two runners in the eighth but again failed to capitalize as Delgado got tagged out overrunning third base.

In the ninth, Sanders quickly retired the first two batters, but things got interesting as Sinan Kasap, Probst and Delgado laced together three consecutive singles to cut the Challengers’ lead to 3-2.

But Sanders struck out Limacher to end the game, giving the Challengers’ a 3-1 season series record against the Eagles.

Game notes
Sanders' single in the seventh inning was his 100th total base with the Challengers. ...The Challengers’ pitching staff struck out 15 opposing batters for the second time this season, matching the feat of May 4, 2013, also against the Eagles. The 15 strikeouts are one shy of the franchise record of 16, set on August 19, 2012, also against the Eagles. …Limacher is the fourth opposing batter to collect a Platinum Sombrero by striking out five times in a single game against the Challengers, and the first since the Frogs’ Christoph Fink did so on June 5, 2010. Fabian Monn is the only Challenger to collect five strikeouts in a game, achieving that dubious feat on September 17, 1994 against the Barracudas.