by Chris Byrnes
It’s September and that can only mean one thing for the Swiss NLA teams, its playoff time. This is a very exciting and magical time of the season where teams wake up and anticipate a Championship.
The semifinals got under way last weekend with the Bern Cardinals facing the Zurich Barracudas. The Barracudas defeated the Bern Cardinals in both games in thrilling fashion. On Saturday evening the Barracudas scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 9th to win 3-2 and on Sunday they had to overcome a 5-3 deficit in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game and then score two runs in the top of the 11th to win 7-5.
Game 1 Recap – Zurich Barracudas 3 – Bern Cardinals 2
This game turned out to be an old fashion pitchers duel between the Barracudas Andi Rüesch and the Cardinals Thierry Burkhardt, both are proving to be the best pitchers in Switzerland. At the end of the night it was the Barracudas who prevailed in a tight 3-2 walk-off win in the bottom of the 9th.
The Barracudas were cruising along with a 2-0 lead with Rüesch in command into the 8th inning. The Barracudas two runs came on a Nderim Coma sac fly in the first and a Chris Michals rbi double in the 5th.
In the top of the 8th the Cardinals mounted a rally when Angelo Rodriguez reached on an error, Mo Kocher walked and Miro Bussman delivered a pinch hit single to load the bases with one out. Barracudas coach Chris Byrnes made a pitching change and went to the old reliable Roger Savoldelli to get the Barracudas out trouble. Savoldelli was greeted by a single from Regis Reinhardt to score two runs and tie the ball game at 2-2. Savoldelli got out of the jam with two ground ball outs.
In the bottom of the ninth, Johnny Perigos replaced Burkhardt on the mound and was immediately greeted by a line drive single by Jeroen Hermans to start the inning. Hermans was lifted for a pinch runner Philip Reger who advanced to 2nd base on a passed ball. Hasson Rogers was hit by the next pitch and both advanced on a Perigos Balk. Perigos got Strahil Georgiev too grounded out but on the next pitch Rogers raced home on a wild pitch to win the ball game 3-2.
Game 2 Recaps – Zurich Barracudas 7- Bern Cardinals 5
The Bern Cardinals gave Rich Donnelly the ball in game 2 to try to even the series while the Barracudas sent out their ace Chris Michals. It was the Barracudas who scored first in top of the 3rd inning when Stephan Pribitzer walked and Marc Schnider placed a nice sac bunt to advance Pribitzer to 2nd base. Pribitzer then swiped 3rd base and scored on Harry Wischnewski fly ball to centerfield.
The Cardinals evened the score in the bottom of the 4th when Angelo Rodriquez singled and moved to 2nd base on a sac bunt by Mo Kocher and scored on single by Misael Contreras.
The Barracudas answered back in the top 5th scoring a run again when Pribitzer walked and Marc Schnider moved him over on sac bunt and Chris Michal launched a single to left field to make it a 2-1 ball game
The Cardinals broke open the game in the 6th inning when they had a pinch hit single by Miro Bussman and a single by Misael Contreras. The next batter Sven Ambühl bunted to the 3rd base side and pitcher Chris Michals fielded the ball and fired to 3rd base but was off the mark and the ball went deep into left field and both runs scored making it a 3-2 game. The Cards tacked on two more runs to make it a 5-2 ball game when Sami Paulino singled and Thierry Burkhardt grounded out to 2nd base to score the 5th run of the game.
The Barracudas hopes looked dim going into the 8th inning down 5-2 but they managed to score one run when Josh Crouse and Tyler Wagner walked with two outs and then the Cardinals made a pitching change bringing in Ernesto Pereira to get the job done. Pereira was greeted by Nderim Coma who hit a rocket to left field to score Crouse to make it a 5-3 game.
In the top of the 9th inning the Barracudas were facing defeat with two outs nobody on base and a 3-2 count on Marc Schnider but it was Schnider who still had some fight left in him and he lined a single into left center to keep the Barracudas hopes alive. Next batter Harry Wischnewski walked and a wild pitch moved the tying run into scoring positon. Strahil Georgiev down 0-2 in the count battled back to get a walk and that brought Josh Crouse to the plate with the bases juiced. Crouse has been known to drive a few buses hammered a pitch into right center field to tie the game 5-5.
The Barracudas sent Nderim Coma to the mound in the 9th and he shut down the Cardinals offense for three innings. The Barracudas plated two runs in the top of the 11th to go ahead for good 7-5. Their rally was sparked again by Marc Schnider who led off with a single followed by a Wischnewski laser down the left field line and a walk to Andi Rüesch loaded the bases. A passed ball brought Schnider home with the go ahead run and Tyler Wagner hit a sac fly to bring in the insurance run. Nderim Coma picked up the win in relief and Ernesto Pereira took the loss.
The best of five series will continue next weekend in Zurich and it will be another great battle between Rüesch and Burkhardt. Game time is 19:00 at the ballpark in Zurich.