Barracudas stomp Challengers 12-7

The Barracudas jumped out to an early 9-1 lead against starter Tobias Siegrist and withstood a late Challengers rally to win 12-7 in Friday's night game at the Heerenschürli.

Josh Crouse led his team with four singles and a triple, and Andy Rüesch picked up his first win of the season by tossing five innings of two-hit ball.

Siegrist got tagged for two runs in the opening inning, allowing two runs on catcher Rob Sedin's throwing error and an RBI-single by Nderim Coma.

The Challengers got one run back on Clayton Carson's sacrifice fly to left, but that was the only run the Challengers managed off Rüesch.

Meanwhile, the Barracudas kept teeing off Siegrist, and were patient at the plate, drawing three walks in the third inning and scoring three more runs.

In the fourth inning, five consecutive singles extended the Barracudas' lead to 8-1, and two more singles and a base-on-balls in the fifth inning made the day for Siegrist.

Harry Bregy took over and pitched into the ninth, allowing no runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth inning.

The Barracudas inserted Roger Savoldelli as reliever in the seventh inning, and things started to get interesting as Savoldelli failed to retire any of the first six batters he faced. Bryan Shemley's two-run single capped a big six-run inning to cut the deficit to 9-7.

That forced Barracudas coach Chris Byrnes to summon Coma to the mound and he retired six of the seven batters he faced to secure the win, earning him his first save since June 2011.

The Barracudas tacked on three more runs in the top of the ninth on Crouse's RBI-triple, and sac flies by Chris Michals and Bert Marsnik for the final score of 12-7.

Game notes
Siegrist's RBI-single in the seventh inning was his 555th in the NLA. ...Shemley got hit by a pitch in the fourth inning in what was his 1'000th plate appearance in the NLA. ...Thomas Burger struck out in his 200th at-bat in the NLA. ...Jesus Martinez' strikeout in the seventh inning was his 150th with the Challengers in the NLA.