Challengers easily defeat Subs 13-7

The Challengers cruised to an easy 13-7 victory over the Romanshorn Submarines on Saturday at the Heerenschürli.

	Patrick Zöllig picked up his first win of the season by pitching five effective innings.

Patrick Zöllig started on the mound for the Challengers and gave up just five runs - four of them unearned - over five innings.

The only hit for extra bases he gave up was Keegan's solo homer to lead off the second inning. Other than that, he gave up only three more singles, walked three and also struck out five to earn his first victory of the season in the NLB.

Benny Räber, a starter in the NLA, led the Challengers' attack by hitting his second grandslam homer of the season in a six-run fourth inning and also hitting an RBI-double in the third inning.

Patrick Bosshard had a game-high three hits - all of them singles - and also stole two bases.

Reliever Oliver Labhart picked up his first save of the season by pitching the final four innings, giving up only two runs on four hits, no walks and striking out four.

	Willy Schaub gets his first hit of the season in the fourth inning.

The Submarines managed to keep the game close through the first 3 1/2 innings, but Räber's grandslam and a defensive blunder enabled the Challengers to score six runs in the bottom of the fourth to blow the game wide open at 11-1.

The Subs managed though to get within 11-7 after six innings.

Four errors by the Challengers' defense in the top of the fifth inning enabled four Submarines to score, and Michael Renggli's two-run homer in the next inning off Labhart brought the Subs within four runs of the Challengers.

But Labhart silenced them over the last three innings, and another error by pitcher Schiavo enabled the final two runs to cross the plate for the Challengers.

With the win, the Challengers improve to 2-0 while the Submarines sink to 0-2.