Tomas' homer rallies Challengers past Flyers for 4-3 win in opener

The Challengers took Game 1 of the Semifinals against the Therwil Flyers 4-3 thanks to a late rally.

They were patient in their approach at the plate and took the lead for good thanks to Amado Tomas Tabilis' three-run homer in the top off the seventh inning off reliever Stefan Koller.

They took the lead in the top of the second inning on back-to-back doubles to left field by Saentis Zeller and rookie Carlos Nepomuceno.

The Flyers erased that run and went ahead in the bottom half of the inning on Ianis Bouteloup's two-run single off Ryan Byrne.

A bases-loaded walk in the fourth inning extended the Flyers' lead to 3-1 and coach Chris Palatinus had a brief conversation with his starter.

The Challengers mounted a rally in the top of the sixth, putting runners at third and second with one out. But Zeller struck out looking and Nepomuceno flied out to short center for the third out.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Flyers had two runners in scoring position with no outs, but also failed to capitalize. Adrian Kaufmann struck out swinging, before Takanobu Oshima lifted a deep fly ball to right fielder Tomas. He made the catch for the second out and then fired a bullet to catcher Tobias Siegrist to nail Sebastian Zwyer at home for the third out.

In the top of the seventh Flyer starter Lukas Croton aggrevated his hamstring on a cover play at first and had to be replaced by Koller. With two runners on, Koller was greeted by Tomas with a shot over the left field fence for a 4-3 Challenger lead.

After walking the next batter, Koller regrouped and retired the final seven batters he faced.

Byrne, on the other hand, retired eight in a row before issuing a one-out walk to Kaufmann in the ninth. Takanobu Oshima followed and popped out to center. Kaufmann, unaware of the number of outs, kept running around the bases and was easily retired on an 8-1 double play for the final out.

Game notes
Zeller passed Anubis Benitez for fourth place on the all-time list for runs scored by scoring his 354th run in the second inning.