By Chris Byrnes
On a very cold and wet Sunday, the Champion Zurich Barracudas, opened up their season with a two game visit from the Therwil Flyers in Zurich. The game went down to the wire and the Barracudas pulled out a dramatic 7-6 win in the bottom of the 9th to take the first game. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and the second game was called during the 4th inning.
The Therwil Flyers jumped out on top of the Barracudas scoring two runs in the 3rd inning when Barracudas pitcher Andi Rüesch walked two batters and then hung a 1-2 curve ball to Michael Stowers who promptly delivered a single up the middle to put the Flyers up 2-0.
The Flyers went right back at it in the 4th inning pushing another two runs across the plate when Sven Leemann and Javier Rodriquez singled. Barracudas pitcher Andi Rüesch then fielded a comeback to the mound but threw wild to 1st base scoring Leemann and placing Rodriquez on third. Next batter Sebastian Zwyer laced a single into left field to get the fourth run across.
The Flyers pitcher Stefan Koller was cruising along until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Barracudas offense loaded the bases on two singles by Tyler Wagner and Chris Michals and a walk to Jeroen Hermans. With the bases loaded Tyler Wagner took off from 3rd base and stole home to score the Barracudas first run of the season. A straight steal of home is one of the more exciting plays in baseball and Wagner executed perfectly. Marc Schnider produced and rbi single to left field off Koller to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Barracudas struck again in the 5th inning when Josh Crouse and Harry Wischnewski pulled off a double steal with Wischnewski scoring to make it a 4-3 game.
The Flyers answered back and added one run in the 7th and 8th inning to take a comfortable lead 6-3 going into the 9th inning. Flyers pitcher Stefan Koller retired the first two batters in the 9th and things looked dark for the Barracudas. Josh Crouse the bus driver then delivered deep triple to give the Barracudas hope. Tyler Wagner followed with a walk and the Flyers made a pitching change bringing Adrian Kaufmann in to replace Koller who pitched brilliantly. Kaufmann walked the tying run Chris Michals to load the bases. Josh Crouse scored on a passed ball to make it 6-4 with two outs. Wagner and Michals moved up into scoring position. Jeroen Hermans stepped to the plate and delivered an infield single to score Wagner making it a 6-5 ball game with two outs. The Barracudas then pulled off a double steal and Michals raced home with the tying run. The Flyers then walked Nderim Coma and Strahil Georgiev to load the bases. Hasson Rogers came to the place and worked out a game-winning walk to win it for the Barracudas.