Challengers take Playoff opener with walk-off win in 11

The Challengers started their Playoffs in dramatic fashion, getting a 5-4 win in Game 1 against the Lucerne Eagles on Robert Sedin’s walk-off RBI-single in the 11th inning.

Both starters went the distance, with Tobias Siegrist ending up as the winner after facing a career-high 47 batters.

Sedin and Gabriel Holguin each had three hits, with Sedin collecting a game-high three RBIs.

The Eagles opened the score with two runs in the third inning on RBI-singles by Tom Enz and Patrick Maier.

But the Challengers answered in the bottom half of the inning as the Challengers strung together five singles which resulted in three runs and a temporary 3-2 lead against starter Stefan Haltmeier.

Neither team scored a run in the middle innings as Haltmeier and Siegrist cruised along, with Haltmeier retiring seven batters in a row at one point.

But in the top of the seventh, Siegrist nailed Raphael Strub with a pitch which was followed by Adam Greenberg hitting a homer to deep right field, giving his team the lead back at 4-3. It was his first homer of the season.

The Challengers kept struggling against Haltmeier, getting only one base runner each in the seventh and eighth innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, Haltmeier drilled Carlos Nepomuceno with one out, James Sanders followed with a single, and another hit-by-pitch to Siegrist loaded the bases. Sedin then unleashed a deep fly ball to right field which was enough to score Nepomuceno from third to tie the game.

Haltmeier then managed to induce Saentis Zeller to hit into a soft grounder to first to send the game into extra innings.

Siegrist got stronger as the game went along, retiring six of the seven batters he faced in the 10th and 11th innings.

With two outs in the bottom of the 11th, everything pointed to a 12th inning, but Siegrist managed to draw a walk after falling behind 0-2 in the count. Sedin than jumped on the first offering from Haltmeier and hit a sharp liner just over the outstretched glove of left fielder Andreas Vogel, sending Siegrist racing all the way from first to home with the winning run.

Game notes
Siegrist’s 11 IP are the most since Lowuin Sacramento pitched 11 innings against the Therwil Flyers on September 14, 2014. He is 7-0 in his career against the Eagles. …Sedin scored his 150th run in the NLA as he crossed the plate in the third inning.