Eagles beat Challengers 16-4 in five innings

The Reussbuhl Eagles showed the Challengers how they want to clinch the division title.

They did it by beating them 16-4 in five innings, outhitting their opponent 11-2.

Starter Patrick Zöllig had a shaky outing as he gave up four earned runs in the bottom of the first inning on two two-run homers by Stephan Bhend and Eric Fehlmann.

Zöllig also walked two and hit a batter with a pitch.

The Challengers managed to come back in the next inning, scoring three runs on consecutive bases-loaded walks to Willy Schaub and Protim Datta, and a steal home by Claudio Deck to cut the Eagles' lead to 4-3.

But Zöllig continued to struggle and gave up two bases-loaded walks in the bottom half of the inning. Jerome Müller followed with a two-run single and Klaus Fiebiger capped the inning with a three-run double.

The Eagles ended up sending 13 runners to the plate in that inning to extend the score to 13-3.

There wasn't much the Challengers could do against starter Plüss and reliever Müller after that, and Zöllig's solo homer in the third inning, his first of his NLB-career, remained the only highlight the rest of the game for the Challengers.