Cardinals end Challengers' season with 10-1 win

For the second time in a row, the Bern Cardinals ended the Challengers‘ season in the first round of the Playoffs, winning the Series 3-1 with a 10-1 blowout in Game 4 at the Heerenschürli.

Patrick Lawson threw a gem, allowing only one unearned run in seven innings of work, and the Cardinals outhit their opponents 9-3 en route to their 11th Finals appearance in the last 13 seasons.

Robert Sedin matched Lawson for six innings, allowing just a single run in the first inning, and trailing 1-0 after six frames.

But things fell apart in the seventh when Cards loaded the bases with one out on a base-on-balls, a hit-by-pitch and an intentional walk.

Sedin then lost Raphael Hänzi and Ryan Byrne to four balls, forcing in two runs for a 3-0 Cardinals lead.

Sedin managed to strike out Jhonny Perigos for the second out, but Bert Marsknik hit a two-run single, followed by Rudy Vargas’ RBI-triple to blow the lead wide open at 6-0.

After hitting Tobias Imboden with a pitch, Andrea Girasole took over on the mound, but fared not much better. He walked the first two guys he faced, forcing in another run, and Samy Paulino’s two-run double capped a wild 9-run inning.

On the other side, Lawson retired the first 13 batters of the game before Tobias Siegrist broke his perfect game with a dribbler through the right side.

Lawson went on to retire the next three batters before issuing the first walk of the game to Harry Bregy.

The only run he allowed came after Sedin reached on shortstop Paulino’s error, and got plated by pinch-hitter Thomas Blank’s RBI-single four batters later.

But that was all the Challengers were able to produce in the offense. Byrne pitched the final two innings, striking out five of the eight batters he faced to send his team to the Finals.

Game and season notes

The game was the 700th in franchise history. ...Saentis Zeller’s ground out in the fourth inning was his 1’000th at-bat in the NLA. He set a new career high with 14 strikeouts, and set new lows for batting average (.236), slugging percentage (.283), on-base percentage (.315) and OPS (.598). ...Eidrys Reyes’ 61 hits are the most in a season since Thomas Landis had 63 in 2000. ...Sedin tied his own franchise record by hitting three triples. He set a new franchise record by striking out 135 batters, and also set a new single game record when he struck out 20 batters on Juni 27, 2013 against the Zurich Lions. ...Jesus Martinez tied the Challengers’ single season record for strikeouts with 31. ...Patrick Maier has hit a triple in each of the last three seasons. ...Siegrist’s five doubles set a new career low, and his 13 strikeouts as a batter set a new career high. As a pitcher, he set new career highs by walking only 1.33 batters per nine innings, and allowing only 1.15 baserunners per inning. ...Francisco Colindres had a team-high 16 walks. ...Thomas Burger set a new career high with a .241 batting average. ...With three sacrifices this season, Blank is now 3rd on the Challengers alltime list with 26. ...Bregy’s 97 at-bats are the most since getting 98 in 2001. ...Bryan Shemley tied the Challengers’ single season record for sacrifices with seven. ...Challengers batters have hit zero homers for the first time in franchise history. They also struck out a record 200 times. ...Challengers pitchers have set new season highs for innings pitched (278), walks allowed (97), strikeouts (269) and ERA (3.56).