Red Barons 17, Challengers 15

Silvio Patrizio led the Red Barons' offensive assault by hitting three grand slam homers to give his team a 17-15 win in Game 2 of Sunday's doubleheader.

Not sure whether this already happened once, Patrizio surely set a personal record by delivering the ball three times out of the park with the bases loaded to give him 12 RBI's. It could have been even more if he hadn't flied out to right in the first and striking out in the fifth frame, both with two runners on base.

Tobias Siegrist>

Rookie Tobias Siegrist had a game-high three hits and raised his team-leading batting average to .594.

The Challengers jumped ahead by scoring three times in the first inning on two errors by the shaky Red Barons defense.

Patrizio's first grand-slam tied the game 4-4 in the top of the third inning with no outs.

But the Challengers were able to add two more runs in their half of the inning on Urs Blickenstorfer's RBI-single and yet another defensive error.

Patrizio's second slam in the next inning put his team again ahead 8-6 and that was the day for Harry Bregy, whose eight runs given up were all earned.

Patrick Zöllig (0-1) came on to put out the fire and promptly got out of the jam by inducing Pennisi to ground into an inning-ending doubleplay.

The Barons score three more in the top of the fifth, this time on two errors, and an RBI-single by Maurizio Patrizio. His brother Silvio came to the plate with two on, but Zöllig was able to retire him on strikes.

By the middle of the sixth inning, the Barons had a big 11-6 lead, but it proved to be insufficient as the Challengers scored six times in the bottom of the inning.

Siegrist hit a two-run double and left fielder DeJesus dropped Blickenstorfer's pop fly with the bases loaded and two outs. Blickenstorfer eventually scored later on to put the Challengers up 12-11.

In the last inning, the Barons loaded the bases again for Silvio Patrizio and he did the inevitable by hitting his third grand slam of the day.

They added even two more on Zapata's two-run double for a 17-12 lead.

The Challengers were down to their last three outs, but were able to mount a big comeback.

Silvio Patrizio was on the mound for the Barons and he forced in three runs by walking two and hitting one batter by a pitch with the bases loaded. Blickenstorfer represented the tying run on second base, but with two outs, Zöllig struck out to end the game.

The Challengers are now 7-3 and look to have already secured a playoff spot. They have four games left, twice against the Zurich Lions (6-2), against the Chur Braves (4-6) and the Romanshorn Submarines (5-4).