by Chris Byrnes
On a beautiful sunny day with temperatures hovering near the 30 degree mark the Zurich Barracudas and the Therwil Flyers battled in the heat with hot pitching from both teams. The Flyers won the opening game2-0 behind the strong pitching of National Team pitchers Lukas Croton and Daniel Levine. The Barracudas won second game 1-0 in 11 innings with a Nderim Coma walk off single.
Game 1 Flyers 2 – Barracudas 0
The Flyers and Barracudas dueled through the first five innings with Lukas Croton and Andi Rüesch matching scoreless innings. In the top of the 6th inning, the Flyers Adrian Kaufman led off with a walk and Gavin Guarrera laid down a sac bunt in front of the plate which Barracuda pitcher Andi Rüesch fielded cleanly but threw wide of second base placing runners on 2nd and 3rd base with no outs. Stefan Koller stepped to the plate and the veteran Flyer got the job done by lifting a sac fly to right field to score Kaufman to make it a 1-0 ball game. That turned out to be the only run the Flyers needed as Lukas Croton pitched a gem keeping the Barracudas offense off balance for seven shutout innings earning his fourth win of the season.
The Flyers added an insurance run in the 8th inning off Roger Salvodeli. Once again it was Adrian Kaufmann starting it off with a single and then Gavin Guarrera tried to bunt him over but Kaufman was forced out at second base. Guarrera moved to third base with two passed balls. Stefan Koller game up to the plate and hit a high chopper to short stop and Guarrera scored from 3rd base to make it 2-0. Daniel Levine came in to pitch the last two innings to record his first save of the year.
Andi Rüesch was a tough luck loser as he pitched seven strong innings allowing only 3 hits and striking out a season high 11 batters while giving up no earned runs. Rüesch moves to 5-2 on the season.
Game 2 Barracudas 1 – Flyers 0
Game two was another pitchers battle with the Flyers Gavin Guarrera and Chris Michals. Both pitchers keep zero’s on the board for nine innings.
Both pitchers were cruising along and in the 4th inning the Barracudas had a chance to score with a runner on 3rd base with one out but Guarrera was able to get Chris Michals to pop up and Nderim Coma to strike out.
In the top of the 7th inning Stefan Koller hit a single and moved to 3rd base on a wild pickoff throw by Michals. With one out and a runner on 3rd base Michals struck out Emanuel Raouszeos with a break ball in the dirt. Barracudas catcher Strahil Georgiev threw to 1st base for the out and Stefan Koller took off for home and the throw back home was in time as Georgiev blocked the plate and Koller was called out. This turned out to be the key play of the game.
Michals and Guarrera continued their dominance on hitters until the the Barracudas finally executed in the11th inning when Josh Crouse worked out a leadoff walk from relief pitcher Michal Levine and Chris Michals laid down a perfect sac bunt to move Crouse to second base. The Barracudas captain Nderim Coma came to the plate and hit the first pitch from Levine into centerfield to score Crouse and win the night cap.
Michael Levine took the loss in relief of Guarrera who struck out 15 batters and did not allow an earned run in nine innings. Josh Crouse picks up the win in relief for the Barracudas.
The Swiss NLA standings are very close this year and it will be a battle for the remainder of the season for the playoff spots. The Bern Cardinals swept the surging Luzern Eagles in Luzern to tie the Eagles in the standings at 9-6.
Next week we will see the Flyers take on the Eagles and the Challengers take on the Cardinals and these games will probably give us an indication who will take second place.
STANDINGS REGULAR SEASON
|
|
W |
L |
PCT |
GB |
| Zürich Barracudas | 13 | 3 | .813 | – |
| Luzern Eagles | 9 | 6 | .600 | 3.5 |
| Bern Cardinals | 9 | 6 | .600 | 3.5 |
| Therwil Flyers | 8 | 6 | .571 | 4 |
| Zürich Challengers | 5 | 7 | .417 | 6 |
| Zürich Lions | 0 | 16 | .000 | 13 |