by Chris Byrnes
The Zurich Barracudas visited the Jona Bandits on Saturday and took both games convincingly 13-1 and 14-1 to move into 1st place. The Barracudas bats were active all day hammering out 35 hits while the pitching allowed only two runs on the day. It was a memorial day for Barracudas shortstop Josh Crouse who had a monster day at the plate going 8 for 10 including three home runs. scored seven runs and added 10 RBIs to lead the Barracudas. Crouse is now batting .458 on the year with 29 runs scored and 27 RBIs to lead the league.
Game 1
The Barracudas pitchers allowed only three hits and one run over seven innings. Andi Rüesch who pitched three scoreless innings recorded his third win on the season while Nderim Coma and Harry Wischnewski added scoreless innings before veteran Roger Savoldelli came on to finish the last two innings.
Offensively the Barracudas pounded out 12 hits and were led by Josh Crouse who parked the bus and added three hits and five RBIs to seal the victory. Harry Wischnewski added another two hit game and raised his batting average to .308 on the year.
Game 2
Chris Michals took the mound and dominated the Bandits going seven innings allowing only one run on six hits to earn his forth victory of the season. Nderim Coma and Roger Savoldelli each pitched scoreless innings to close out the Bandits for the sweep.
The offense hammered out 23 hits with the Bus driver Josh Crouse going yard with his 2nd and 3rd home runs on the day, Crouse also contributed five runs scored and five RBIs. Tyler Wagner had four hits and Marc Schnider chipped in with three hits to raise his batting average over .300 for the season. Nderim Coma, Strahil Georgiev and Chris Michals all added two hits. The Barracudas lowered their league leading ERA to a stingy 2.13 and raised their team batting average to .340 on the season.
The Barracudas visit the capital next week to take on the young but improving Bern Cardinals.
Swiss NLA
In other NLA action this weekend the Therwil Flyers swept the Sissach Frogs convincingly to move into 2nd place only one game behind the Barracudas while the Frogs drop to 3rd place in the standings.
The Zurich Challengers seem to be on the move and have their sights on the Frogs as they have four games versus the Frogs coming up. The Luzern Eagles split with the Bern Cardinals and they will need some help from others if they want to land the fourth spot.
| Swiss NLA | Wins | Loss | GB |
| Zurich Barracudas | 13 | 2 | – |
| Therwil Flyers | 10 | 2 | 1.0 |
| Sissach Frogs | 11 | 3 | 1.5 |
| Zurich Challengers | 7 | 5 | 4.5 |
| Luzern Eagles | 9 | 7 | 4.5 |
| Bern Cardinals | 5 | 9 | 7.5 |
| Jona Bandits | 3 | 13 | 10.5 |
| Wil Devils | 0 | 17 | 14 |