by Chris Byrnes
Opening Day is the greatest day within a baseball season the fresh cut grass, the smell of the dirt, the smell of the ball, the crack of a wooden bat during BP, the pop of a fastball into a catcher’s glove.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon the Zurich Barracudas faced their long time rival Zurich Challengers in front of a large opening day crowd of over 800 people. Holgi Schmitt the Barracuda legend was on hand to throw out the first pitch.
Game One – Challengers 4 – Barracudas 2
The season opener saw a great pitching duel between the Barracudas Andi Rüesch and the Challengers Ryan Byrne. Both pitchers were dealing through six scoreless innings.
The game started to open up and get exciting for the fans in the 7th inning. In the top of the 7th, Rüesch hit the leadoff batter Eirdys Reyes. That prompted a visit from the dugout and Roger Savoldelli was summoned from the bullpen.
Savoldelli struck out Ryan Byrne to get the first out and got Challenger slugger Rob Sedin to fly out to centerfield. With Tobi Siegrist standing that the plate Reyes stole second base on the first pitch and advanced to third base as the throw from catcher Bert Marsnik sailed into centerfield. Savodelli wisely walked the Challengers captain and then got Jamie Sanders to ground out to second base to end the Challengers threat.
In the bottom of the 7th inning the Barracudas received a break when Strahil Georgiev reached first base on a wild pitch. Savoldelli laid down a sac bunt and Georgiev advanced to second base. Harry Wischnewski laced a first pitch fastball into centerfield scoring Georgiev to break the scoreless tie and put the Barracudas up 1-0. Chris Michals making his Barracuda debut cracked a double down the left field line to score Wischnewski to make it a 2-0 ball game.
The Challengers would not give up they fought back in top of the eight as Savoldelli walked Jesus Martinez and Bryan Shemley with one out. The next batter Harry Bregy laid down a nice bunt in front of the plate and the Barracudas threw the ball down the right field line and the Challengers tied the score at 2-2. Bregy wound up on third base. The next batter Reyes hit a sac fly to right field to score the go ahead run 3-2. This turned out to be the key play of the game.
The Challengers added another run in the top of the ninth on solid hitting from Rob Sedin who stroked a single Tobi Siegrist crushed a long double to score Sedin to give the Challengers a very important insurance run for the ninth inning.
The Barracudas were all business in the ninth with a base hit by Strahil Georgiev and double by Harry Wischnewski placing the tying run at second base with one out and the Barracudas bus drivers coming up. There was no joy in mudville for the Barracudas as the Challenger’s pitcher Tobi Siegrist worked his way out of the jam by getting both Chris Michals and Josh Crouse to ground out to end the threat.
Ryan Byrne got the his first win as a Challenger and pitched seven great innings striking out nine batters. Tobi Siegrist got the save. Roger Savoldelli was tagged with a tough loss giving up only one earned run in three innings of relief.
Game Two – Barracudas 4 – Challengers 3
Game two turned out to be just as exciting as game one. The Barracudas sent their new import player Chris Michals to the mound to face the hard throwing Rob Sedin. The Challengers scored three quick runs in the third inning when Andi Rüesch dropped a fly ball to score two runs and Saentis Zeller fought off a tough pitch on the knuckles and dropped a double down the left field line to score the third run of the game.
The Barracudas fought back in the bottom of the inning when Andi Rüesch walked and Josh the bus driver Crouse hit a double to score Rüesch to make the score 3-1.
The Challengers tried to put the game away in the top of the seventh when Harry Bregy led off with a double to right center and moved to third base on a wild pitch by Michals. Ryan Byrne walked and stole second base to place runners at second and third with one out. Rob Sedin walked to the plate and Michals walked him to load the bases. The Barracudas decided to play the infield back and go for the double play. Tobi Siegrist walked to the plate and a base hit would put the game out of reach. Michaels got Siegrist to ground the ball up the middle and Josh Crouse made a nice grab and made the double play. That turned out to be the key play in the game for the Barracudas as Crouse would not have gotten to that ball if he was playing in.
The game stayed that way until the bottom of the 8th inning when the Barracudas started their comeback. Crouse worked out a walk after being down 1-2 in the count and scored on a Joe Mauer like long double by Bert Marsnik to make it a 3-2 ball game. Challengers manager Chris Palentinus made the trip to the mound and gave the ball to his lefty Harry Bregy. Unfortunately, Bregy’s first pitch was in the dirt and got by Siegrist to advance Marsnik to third base. Nderim Coma then hit what looked to be a sac fly to centerfield but the ball was lost in the Sun and Marsnik scored the tying run.
Michals who battled severe leg craps in the first few innings finally got his legs back and shut down the Challengers the last six innings.
In the bottom of the ninth Andi Rüesch leadoff and was hit by pitch. Alejandro Lopez executed a nice sac bunt and Harry Wischnewski hit a high fastball into centerfield for the walk off win.
Chris Michals received his first win in Switzerland pitching nine innings and giving up no earned runs. Nderim Coma had three hits and the fans were treated to excellent baseball.
The Barracudas are off to Therwil for the weekend and the Challengers face the new look Luzern Eagles at the Zurich ballpark next week.