by Therwil Flyers
On a beautiful sunny day in Therwil, the Flyers hosted the defending Champion Bern Cardinals. The matchup of the Champions vs Vice Champions did not disappoint. Game 1 saw a pitching matchup of 2 Swiss national team players, as Lukas Croton for the Flyers went against Ryne Byrne. Croton was masterful through the first 4 innings with a perfect game while Byrne had a lot of command struggles. In the first the Flyers jumped on the board first without the benefit of a hit getting 2 walks and 2 hit batters to score 1 run. The game stayed 1-0 going into the 3rd when the Flyers added 1 more run to go up 2-0. Croton was dominating until the 5th when the wheels came off a bit the cards opened the inning with 3 consecutive hits and Croton had to leave the game with a slight muscle injury. Lefty Hide Oshima came to the rescue and pitched out of the base loaded no outs jam by only allowing 2 of the inherited runners to score. After that Oshima dominated for the next 4 innings allowing no runs no hits and just 1 walk. Meanwhile in the 7th the Flyers added 2 more runs to end the day for Byrne and former national team pitcher Tobias Imboden came on to relieve. Imboden got out of the 7th, but ran into a ton of trouble in the 8th giving up 4 runs on3 hits and 2 walks. Final score Therwil Flyers 8 Bern Cardinals 2. For the Flyers Dan Eichenberger lead the way with 2-4 day with 2 runs scored and 3 RBI, Stefan Koller was also 1-2 with 3 walks and 3 runs scored. For Bern Johnny Perigo and Marc Obussier each had 1 hit and 1 run scored.
Game two figured to be a low scoring affair as the Flyers Import Josh Tamba faced off with Cards import Patrick Lawson. Once again the Flyers scored first as Josh Tamba led off with a single and scored on a double play ball. The Cards came right back though in the top of the second after Rudi Vargas reached on a fielder’s choice Miro Bussman advanced him to third with a double and veteran Swiss national team player Angelo Rodriguez knocked him in with a single. After the 2nd both pitchers stayed strong and did not allow a run until Bern broke through again in the top of the 5th. With 2 outs and nobody on Marc Obussier hit a solo home run to center, this was followed by a hit batter and a single, then with 1st and 2nd Tamba allowed a ground rule double to add a second run.. In their half of the 5th the Flyers would not be outdone, scoring 3 runs themselves. A hit by a pitch to Sebastian Zwyer then singles by Hide Oshima and Steffan Koller brought Dan Eichenberger to the plate and he connected on a 2 run double. The back and forth game moved to the 6th with the Flyers leading 5-3. New Flyers pitcher Chris Blackbee got 2 fast outs then a walk and 3 singles managed to plate 3 runs putting the Cards up 6-5. The lead stood at 6-5 cards until the bottom of the 8th. Taka Oshima lead off the inning with a strikeout but reached first on a wild pitch. Oshima then stole second and then advanced to third on a passed ball, then with 2 outs he scored taking advantage of another passed ball. This brought the score to 6-6 heading into the top of the 9th. New Flyers pitcher Adi Kaufmann came in and got a quick 1-2-3 inning including 1 strikeout. Bern also replaced Lawson after 130 pitches with Tobias Imboden. Imboden got the first out but then gave up a long double to Hide Oshima. This set the table for Stefan Koller who laced a single down the first base line passed a drawn in infield for the walk off flyers win 7-6. For the Flyers the hitting stars of the day where Hide Oshima who went 3-4 with a double and 2 runs scored and Stefan Koller who also went 3-4 with 2 rbis and 1 run scored. For Bern Johnny Perigo, Marc Obussier and Miro Bussmann all had 2 hits. Winning pitcher was Adi Kaufmann and the losing pitcher was Tobias Imboden.