by JB Tucker, Therwil Flyers
Game one between the Therwil Flyers and the Zurich Challengers featured solid pitching and timely hitting for the Flyers. Lukas Croton, coming off of a very successful European Championship, continued his dominant pitching. He pitched 5 innings of one run baseball, not giving the Zurich Challengers much chance to develop any offense. After Croton’s 5 solid innings, Stefan Koller came in the game to pitch the final two frames giving up zero hits and striking out two. On the offensive side, the Flyers scratched out three runs in the first four innings, but then broke it open in the fifth inning, starting with a bases loaded 2 run double by Stefan Koller. The Flyers were able to push 3 runs across in the sixth and seventh to put them up 11 runs, which ended the game early due to the mercy rule. Hitting standouts for the game were Reto Siegel who was 2-5 and Chris Blackbee who was 1-2. Final score was 12-1 in favor of the Flyers.
Game two between the Flyers and Challengers was a much closer game. The Flyers jumped out to an early two run lead in the first inning after the first five batters safely reached base and two were brought in by singles from Chris Blackbee and Taka Oshima. After scoring two in the first, the Flyers were unable to notch any more until the fourth inning when Sebastian Zwyer drove in Adrian Kaufmann with a two strike double and then came home on Challengers fielding error. On the defensive side of the ball, starting pitcher Hide Oshima had a no hitter going through four innings. Oshima kept the Challengers off balance and was able to throw all of his pitches for strikes. Following Oshima was Chris Blackbee who gave up two runs in two innings. After the Flyers surrendered two runs, they were able to get them right back in the sixth inning with consecutive singles from Adrian Kaufmann and Sebastian Zwyer. They both came around to score on a sac fly and rbi single respectively. Hitting standouts for the game were Chris Blackbee who was 3-4, Stefan Koller 2-2 and Sebastian Zwyer who was 1-2. Final score was 8-2 in favor of the Flyers.