Challengers Baseball Club Zurich

24.02.2010: The Challengers have announced the signing of Farid Bekkali for the 2010 season.
Bekkali started his career with the Challengers in 1985 and stayed with the blue and red for eleven seasons. He won the Swiss championship with the C's Juniors and NLB-Team before he joined the Zurich Barracudas in 1996 for whom he played till 2008. The 36-year-old pitcher and first baseman became Swiss champion with the Barracudas in 1996 and 1997 and won the Swiss cup title in 2003.
"To come back to the Challengers closes the circle", Bekkali said. "I want to end my career where it started."
Bekkali brings the experience of sixteen NLA-seasons to the C's lineup. During his time with the Barracudas, Bekkali had 250 hits with 32 homeruns. He also collected 40 career wins and 486 strikeouts in 447.1 innings pitched.
"I'd like to support my teammates with my experience", Bekkali said. "And to bring back the championship to Zurich. This would be the coronation."

Challengers go on ice

15.02.2010:

C's sign new head coach

10.02.2010: The Zurich Challengers named Brian Hipps as their new head coach for the 2010 season. The 29-year-old San Diego native worked as director of Diamond Strength and hitting instructor for the Frozen Ropes Baseball Training Facility in San Diego and as assistant coach for the Morse High School in San Diego.

Hipps, who played for the San Diego Mesa College and Chico State, was selected by the Montreal Expos in the 44th round of the amateur entry draft in 2001 and turned pro in 2005. As a professional Hipps played Minor League Baseball for the Chico Outlaws and the Chillicothe Paints, both Independent, and for the Atlantic City Surf in the Atlantic League. In 2007 the Outfielder and First Baseman played for the Azules de Mexicali in the North Sonora League in Mexico.

Hipps follows James Sanders, who stays with the Challengers in 2010 as pitcher and shortstop, to manage the Zurich Challengers. In addition to his job as playing coach of the NLA-Team, Hipps will also serve as assistant coach for the NLB-Team, the Juniors and the Softball-Team.

Broken leg sidelines Staub

14.01.2010: Challengers catcher and Swiss U18 national team player Gabe Staub was placed on the disabled list with a fractured right tibia and fibula after he fell on an icy patch near his home in Winterthur on Wednesday. Staub already had surgery on Wednesday night. His father, Challengers president Renato Staub, described the surgery as "very successful". Doctors inserted a titanium plate to stabilize the fracture of the tibia and fibula. Staub will miss the most part of the 2010 season.
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Challengers lose in 11th inning

20.09.2009:

The NLA-Team lost Game 5 to the Therwil Flyers 7-6 in 11 innings. After trailing 5-0 after two innings, the Challengers came back and took a 6-5 lead off reliever Stefan Koller in the eighth inning, but a huge error and a sac fly tied it at 6 apiece in the bottom of the ninth. In the 11th, back-to-back singles by Matthias Jung and Seppi Zwyer off Tobias Siegrist clinched the Semifinals Series in favor of the Flyers.

 

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1.Liga-Team ends season in third place

19.09.2009: The 1.Liga-Team won Game 2 of the best-of-three series for third place against the Zurich Barracudas on Saturday, September 19 at Embrach. After winning 20-5 in the series' opener two weeks ago, the Challengers added a 21-12 victory in Game 2 against their cross-town rivals to finish a fantastic season in third place. The second team will play in the NLB in 2010.
The Challengers clinched the division title in the East Division with a 11-1 record, before losing the semifinal-series against the Thun Hunters 1-2. Overall the team of headcoach Kurt Kovac won 14 of their 17 games in 2009.
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Ladies eliminated by Flyers 1-2

13.09.2009: The Softball-Team's season came to an end on Sunday, September 13 at Therwil after losing Game 2 and also the decisive Game 3 of the best-of-three semifinal series against the defending champion Therwil Flyers.
Jennifer Feret was one error shy of a perfect game and the Flyers used small ball to tie the series at 1-1 with a 6-0 victory in Game 2 against the Challengers. Both teams exchanged zeros on the scoreboard through the first four innings, before the Flyers opened the score in the fifth, as they executed a number of perfect bunts for a 2-0 lead. And they added four more runs in the sixth, as the C's misplayed a grounder that should have been the third out of the frame. Feret struck out 14 for the win, while Karen Heimgartner allowed six runs - only one earned - and eight hits with two walks, while also striking out nine.
The series have come down to a winner-takes-it-all Game 3. And the eight-time Swiss champion got on the board in the first inning, as Colleen Conway scored on a sacrifice bunt. The Challengers avoided further damage in the second inning, as Leandra Simitovic pitched in and out of trouble ending the inning with a strikeout with the bases loaded. But Jennifer Feret opened the third with a solo shot over the left field fence and the Flyers made it 3-0 on a sacrifice fly to center field by Marlene Wittwer. And that was all Sophie Zihlmann and the Flyers needed, as the Challengers' bats remained silent for the entire day. The Flyers made it 4-0 in the fifth, as Feret scored on another sacrifice fly from Babsi Meierhans and they added two more runs on a costly error by the Challengers' defense to eventually win 6-0 and taking the series by 2-1.
Zihlmann tossed a one-hitter with two walks and six strikeouts for the win. Simitovic allowed six runs - four of them earned - and eight hits with three walks and one strikeout but had no support from her offense, as the Challengers weren't able to repeat their outstanding performance from Game 1, as they edged the Flyers 6-5.
The Flyers will face the Bern Cardinals in the finals, who swept the Wil Devils in the other semifinal, while the team of headcoach Armin Blickenstorfer finishs the season in fourth place.
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Cadets celebrate three-peat

30.08.2009:
The U15 Cadets swept the Lions/Rainbows in the best-of-three final series on Sunday, August 30 at Embrach to win their third Swiss championship in a row.
What ended up being the third consecutive title for the C's began as a tough battle. The Lions/Rainbows kept the series opener close, but a 6-2 lead after four innings was all the Challengers' pitchers needed. Korey Kovac threw three strong innings and relievers Jarrod Baker and Yanik Probst closed things out, as the C's posted a 9-4 victory in Game 1. Probst belted two 2-run homers, Gabe Staub had a double and a triple, Korey Kovac delivered two doubles and Baker added a double, while Austin Dillingham and Peter Friedli had one hit apiece giving the team of headcoach Bryan Shemley a 1-0 series lead.
And Game 2 was all Challengers, as things got off to a perfect start for the C's. They scored four runs in the first inning and added three runs in the second frame on a 2-run shot from Probst and a RBI-double from Baker to take a 7-0 lead, while Friedli crossed the plate in the third to make it 8-0. The Lions/Rainbows scored two runs in the bottom of the third, but the C's bats stayed on fire as they answered with eight runs of their own in the fourth inning. Probst belted his fourth homer of the day to open the inning, while Marcel Zubebühler drove in the tenth run on a bases-loaded walk - his third of the game - before Dillingham added a 2-run double and and Staub followed with a base-clearing triple to make it 15-2. The Challengers weren't done yet, as they scored six more runs in the fifth to eventually win 22-3 to defend their title.

Cadets Swiss Champions 2009:
Jarrod Baker, Hazim Boumaiza, Austin Dillingham, Peter Friedli, Maurice Hostettler, Joey Kimball, Korey Kovac, Yanik Probst, Danilo Schneider, Gabe Staub, Magnus Staub, Matthew Stringer, Marcel Zuberbühler; Bryan Shemley (head coach), Tom Kimball (assistant coach), Kurt Kovac (assistant coach)
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1.Liga-Team eliminated

22.08.2009: The 1.Liga-Team was eliminated in their best-of-three semifinal playoff series 2-1 after dropping the deciding Game 3 2-5 to the Thun Hunters on Saturday, August 22 at Thun Allmend. After a successful preliminary round, as the Challengers clinched the division title with a 11-1 record, the C's season ended prematurely against the fourth-placed Hunters.
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