By JB Tucker, Therwil Flyers
Playoff game number one between the Therwil Flyers and the Zurich Barracudas was a back and forth battle that was intense all the way to the finish. The Flyers got off to a rough start defensively, giving up seven runs in the first two innings, off of four errors and a home run. Flyers starter Lukas Croton pitched very well for 4.1 innings, but unfortunately his defense made extra work for him, which shortened his outing. Fortunately for the Flyers, their playoff jitters wore off by the 4th inning and reliever Stefan Koller took advantage of that. He threw the remaining 4.2 innings only yielding two hits and no runs. After trailing 7-1, the Flyers offense never gave up. They were able to push one more run across in the third and another in the fifth. One of these runs coming off of an amazing straight steal of home, by Flyers’ center fielder Reto Siegel. As the Flyers kept chipping away at the lead, the Flyers defense came to life. Facing the hottest hitter in the Barracudas lineup with the bases loaded and one out, pitcher Stefan Koller was able to induce a double play ground ball to end the inning without surrendering a run. Trailing 7-3 in the eighth inning, the Flyers were able to take advantage of some Barracudas miscues, and score 5 runs to take the lead. Offensively, the bottom of the Flyers batting order really came through in the clutch. Adrian Kaufmann and Sebastian Zwyer were able to string together two consecutive singles to put the Flyers up for good. Offensive standouts for the Flyers were Sebastian Zwyer and Chris Blackbee who both finished the game 2-4. Final score was 10-7 in favor of the Flyers.
Game two of the playoff series featured two of the top pitchers in the league. Hide Oshima for the Flyers and Kody Hightower for the Barracudas battled it out on a hot Sunday afternoon. Hide Oshima pitched an excellent game, giving up zero runs in seven innings of work and striking out 7. On the other side of the ball, Kody Hightower kept his team in the game by only giving up 3 runs in seven innings. The Flyers were able to score their first run of the day after Reto Siegel reached on an error, and then came around to score on a RBI double by Chris Blackbee. To increase the lead, in the seventh inning Reto Siegel knocked in two more runs with a 2 out 2 RBI double. The way the Flyers had been pitching, this lead should have been safe. Unfortunately for the Flyers, relief pitcher JB Tucker was unable to keep the Barracudas off the board. After two quick outs followed by an error, the Barracudas strung together 4 straight hits to regain the lead. Trailing by one run in the eighth inning, the first batter of the inning, Chris Blackbee, singled and then was able to steal second and third. With the tying run on third base, catcher Emanuel Raouzeos was able to line a single to left field to tie the game. Following his single, Rauozeos was able to steal second and advance to third on a fielding error. With the go ahead run at third base, Sebastian Zwyer laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to put the Flyers up by one run. Although the Flyers had the lead, their offense did not stop. They were able to push three more runs across to increase their lead to 4. The Flyers had a quick one, two, three ninth inning to earn their second win, increasing their lead to 2-0 in a best of 5 series. Offensive standouts for the Flyers were Chris Blackbee who was 3-5 and Reto Siegel who was 1-4 with 4 RBI. Final score of the game was 8-4 in favor of the Flyers.