Zurich Challengers – Zurich Lions 6-3
Report by Zurich Challengers
The Challengers won the opening game of the 2011 Swiss baseball season on Saturday before big crowds at the Heerenschürli ballpark. Tobias Siegrist (1-0) gave up three runs – one earned – and three hits with three walks and eight strikeouts in five innings, while Yanik Probst notched a perfect ninth inning for his first career save, as the C’s posted a 6-3 victory over the Zurich Lions.
The C’s did most of their damage in the bottom of the first frame, as they scored three runs on three singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly. The Lions, who played their first NLA game since 2001, cut the deficit to one, as they scored twice in the top of the fifth to make it 3-4. But Gabe Staub provided some insurance, as he drove in Carl Conway with a RBI-double in the bottom of the fifth, while Yanik Probst added a RBI-single to make it 6-3.
The C’s will face the reigning Swiss champion Bern Cardinals on Sunday, April 10 at Bern.
Bern Cardinals – Therwil Flyers 3-10, 6-9
Report by JB Tucker, Therwil Flyers
In the first game of the 2011 season the defending champion Bern Cardinals took on the second place Therwil Flyers, and it was a hard fought game as it usually is between these two clubs. The Flyers opened up the game with a strong start, scoring one run in the first inning against starter Tobi Imboden. Driving in the first run of the season was Daniel Eichenberger, with a smashed line drive double to left center field. The Flyers hung on to this one run lead until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Cardinals finally got to starter Lukas Croton and knotted the game at one. Croton, despite being drilled in the foot early in the game by a comeback line drive, had a solid first outing, pitching 5 innings giving up 1 run, 0 earned, on 2 hits. Coming in relief for Croton was Stefan Koller who pitched 3 innings of perfect relief to keep the Cards at one run. With the game tied in the top of the sixth, Stefan Koller and Chris Blackbee had consecutive RBI singles to put the Flyers up by two. With a two run lead in the 8th inning, the Flyers offense came alive to put the game out of reach for the Cards. The first five Flyers of the inning reached base, and four of them came around to score. Most of the damage was done by consecutive RBI hits by Stefan Koller and Chris Blackbee. For the second time in the game the Flyers five and six hitters had consecutive clutch rbi hits to increase the Flyers’ lead. With the game out of reach in the ninth inning, the Flyers continued to push more runs across scoring three, two coming off of a two run home run by catcher JB Tucker. With the score at 10-1, the Cardinals never gave up, pushing for a late rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, scoring two runs before Flyers pitcher, Adrian Kaufmann, induced a fly ball to right field for the final out of the game. Hitting standouts for the game were Daniel Eichenberger and Taka Oshima, both going 3-5. The final score was Flyers 10 and Cardinals 3.
In the second game of the double header the Flyers continued with their momentum from the first game and scored 3 runs in the top of the first. Reto Seigel and Taka Oshima started the game off with back to back walks and then scored on a 2 rbi double by catcher JB Tucker. Although this was a hot offensive start, the Flyers came out very flat in the first inning defensively. With the three run lead already posted, the Flyers committed 3 errors in the bottom half of the inning and pitcher Hide Oshima got off to a slow start giving up 5 runs, 2 earned, to cough up the early lead. After the bad defensive half, the Flyers rallied offensively to tie the game in the top half of the second inning. Sparking their rally was veteran outfielder Reto Siegel, who led off the inning with a sharp single, stole second and then third, and came around to score on a throwing error by Cardinals catcher, Seth Suplin. With the game tied at 5, Flyers’ pitcher Hide Oshima started to settle in. He did not give up another run in his remaining 3 innings of work. Following Oshima was Aussie pitcher Chris Blackbee who gave up one run in the bottom of the fifth on a walk, a sac, and two hits. Turning a nice double play, from third to first, to end the inning was third baseman Seppi Zwyer. With their backs against the wall in the top of the 7th inning, down by one run, the Flyers were able to rally and score 4 unanswered runs. Putting the Flyers on top with a RBI single was Reto Siegel. Siegel finished the game going 3-4 with 3 runs scored and one RBI. Another offensive standout for the game was JB Tucker who went 3-5 with 4 RBI and 2 runs scored. The final score was Flyers 9 and Cardinals 6.