by Chris Byrnes
The Zurich Barracudas put the Bern Cardinals away with a decisive 15-8 win at home on Saturday night. It is the third year in a row that the Barracudas swept their semi-final series and earned a ticket to play in the finals.
After two very tight ballgames that could have gone either way , the Barracudas took advantage of 15 walks, 12 hits and six errors by Cardinals to put pressure on them every inning and by scoring runs in seven of the eight innings to win with some comfort. The game was close in the early stages but it was the Barracudas who jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three innings on an rbi single by Strahil Georgiev and a ground ball out by Josh Crouse. The Cards avoided two runs from scoring when left fielder Regis Reinhard made a spectacular running catch on a Chris Michals laser to the left center gap. Jeroen Hermans added a sac fly to score the 3rd run of the ballgame.
The Cardinals answered back in the top 4th scoring three to tie the game. Thierry Burkhardt led off with a single and a walk to Johnny Perigos setup for a double by Angelo Rodriquez to score Burkhardt. Next batter Mo Kocher grounded out to shortstop to score another run and Rodriquez scored on a wild pitch by Barracudas pitcher Andi Rüesch to make it a 3-3 ball game.
The Barracudas fought back and scored four runs in the 4th to start to put the game out of reach. With the bases loaded Chris Michals hit a double to score two runs and then Nderim Coma lined a single to score two more runs and send the game to 7-3 and the Cardinals could not answer the rest of the way.
Andi Rüesch takes the win pitching 6.2 innings with Roger Savoldelli finishing up to keep the Cardinals in check. The Barracudas move on to the finals to face the Therwil Flyers for the third straight time in the finals.