by Chris Byrnes
Game 1 Summary – Zurich Barracudas 10 – Therwil Flyers 5
| Teams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Zurich Barracudas | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 7 | 2 |
| Therwil Flyers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 0 |
The Swiss NLA finals got underway last weekend with the rematch between the defending Champions Therwil Flyers and the Zurich Barracudas. The Barracudas won three out of four games during the year but faced a red hot Therwil Flyers who won their European qualifier in June and have been on a roll all year long.
On Saturday it was all Barracudas as Andi Rüesch was very dominate allowing only three hits and no runs through the first eight innings while the Barracuda offense was aggressive and pounded out ten runs to win decisively 10-5 in Therwil. Josh Crouse hit a two run home run early in the game and Shane Uhle hit a grand slam home run to put the game out of reach in the top of the 8th inning.
The Flyers mounted a comeback in the bottom of the 9th inning scoring five runs before Roger Savoldelli came in to extinguish the comeback by getting the last batter on three pitches to ground out to 1st baseman Elliot Berger.
Game 2 Summary – Zurich Barracudas 4 – Therwil Flyers 1
| Teams | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
| Therwil Flyers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 |
| Zurich Barracudas | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
On Sunday, the Barracudas behind the great defense and pitching of Chris Michals earned a hard fought victory 4-1. The Flyers started off strong getting three hits in the first inning by Hide Oshima, Lukas Hagberg and Jack Shannon to take a quick 1-0 lead. Michals induced a double play to limit the damage and get out of the inning with only one run scored and that is all Michals would allow during the day in his 113 pitch outing.
The Flyers lefty pitcher Jack Shannon was dominate early on keeping the Barracudas offense at bay by striking out 11 batters on the day. The Barracudas as usual found ways to get runners on base and move them around and tied the score 1-1 in the bottom 3rd inning with two outs Harry Wischnewski drove a pitch into centerfield to score Stephan Pribitzer who walked and stole second base.
The game remained tight until the bottom of the 6th when the Barracudas scored the go ahead run when Wischnewski started the inning with his second hit on the day and Josh Crouse singled to put runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs. Chris Michals hit into a force play and Wischnewski moved to 3rd base. Shane Uhle then hit a ground ball to short and hustled down the line to beat the return throw on the double play ball to 1st base and Wischnewski scored.
The Barracudas came back to add an insurance run in the bottom of the 7th when Strahil Georgiev singled and Hasson Rogers executed a nice sacrifice bunt to move Georgiev into scoring position. Stephan Pribitzer with two strikes laced a triple down the right field line to score Georgiev to make it 3-1. The Barracudas added another run in the bottom of the 8th to make the score 4-1 and that is how the game ended.
The Barracudas will travel to Therwil on Saturday for game 3 of the finals.