The Cadets finished their indoor season with a victory. The C’s won the Indoor Tournament at Rümlang on Saturday, March 21. With two wins and one draw in the qualification round the team of headcoach Bryan Shemley reached the final against the Rümlang Kobras. Both teams played flawless in the field, so that they changed zeros on the scoreboard for the first half of the game. In the fifth inning the C’s took a 4-1 lead after a 3-Run Homerun by Korey Kovac. But the Kobras almost erased the deficit, before Gabe Staub made it 5-3 to seal the deal.
Die Cadets beendeten ihre Hallensaison mit einem Sieg. Die Challengers gewannen am Samstag, 21. März das Hallenturnier in Rümlang. Das Team von Headcoach Bryan Shemley erreichte mit zwei Siegen und einem Unentschieden den Final gegen die Rümlang Kobras. Beide Verteidigungen agierten tadellos, sodass bis zur Spielhälfte keine Runs verbucht wurden. Die Challengers konnten dann durch einen 3-Run Homerun von Korey Kovac im fünften Inning auf 4-1 davon ziehen. Die Gastgeber verkürzten jedoch wieder auf 3-4, ehe Gabe Staub mit dem 5-3 den Blauen den Turniersieg sicherte.
Playing for the Challengers – für die Challengers spielten: Jarrod Baker, Hazim Boumaiza, Luca Chavez, Austin Dillingham, Peter Friedli, Joseph Kimball, Korey Kovac, Yanik Probst (Eagles), Danilo Schneider, Gabe Staub, Marcel Zuberbühler, Bryan Shemley (Headcoach), Tom Kimball (Base Coach)

Die U15-Cadets der Challengers nahmen am Samstag, 28. Februar am Hallenturnier in St. Gallen teil. Das Turnier zum 10-jährigen Jubiläum der Wittenbach Vikings in der beeindruckenden Halle des Athletik Zentrums St. Gallen wurde vom Gastgeber hervorragend organisiert. Das Teilnehmerfeld war ein Mix aus Cadets- und Slowpitch-Teams. Die Challengers waren dank einem Sieg gegen die Vikings/Devils am Ende das bestplatzierte Cadets-Team, blieben gegen die Slowpitch-Teams jedoch chancenlos. Die Pilots, das Juveniles-Team mit Spielern der Embrach Rainbows, der Zürich Lions und der Challengers, belegte am U12-Turnier, welches gleichenorts am Sonntag, 1. März stattfand, den guten zweiten Platz.

The Cadets finished in second place at the Indoor Tournament at Embrach on Saturday, February 7. The team of headcoach Bryan Shemley had a 2-1 record after the qualification round. After beating the Therwil Flyers 8-7, the C’s lost 5-11 to the Rainbows/Lions and added a 10-6 win over the Rümlang Kobras. The Therwil Flyers won the tournament with a 9-5 victory over the C’s in the final.
Die Cadets belegten am Hallenturnier in Embrach am Samstag, 7. Februar den zweiten Schlussrang. Mit zwei Siegen und einer Niederlage erreichte das Team von Headcoach Bryan Shemley den Final. Nach einem 8-7 Starterfolg gegen die Therwil Flyers unterlagen die Challengers den Rainbows/Lions mit 5-11, bevor sie die Rümlang Kobras mit 10-6 besiegen konnten. Den Turniersieg sicherten sich schliesslich die Therwil Flyers mit einem 9-5 Erfolg über die Challengers im Finale.
Playing for the Challengers – für die Challengers spielten: Jarrod Baker, Hazim Boumaiza, Peter Friedli, Simon Heer, Maurice Hostettler, Korey Kovac, Danilo Schneider, Gabe Staub, Magnus Staub, Morten Von Ammon, Marcel Zuberbühler, Bryan Shemley (Headcoach), Miguel Angerer (Base Coach)

The following players received an award at the Challengers’ General Assembly on January 11 2009 – Folgende Spieler wurden an der Challengers Generalversammlung vom 11. Januar 2009 mit einem Award ausgezeichnet: MVP: Gabe Staub Best Pitcher: Korey Kovac Best Batter: Carl Varnauskas Best Fielder: Alex Merlini MIP: Miguel Angerer Rookie of the Year: Danilo Schneider Sportsmanship Award: Josiah Webster

The Challengers Juniors proved again that they hold the most talent in the juniors league by beating the Therwil Flyers twice in the 2008 finals and finishing the season perfect. And what a game it was! The C’s ace, Korey Kovac got off to a great start as usual giving up an unearned run in the first after a high pop up was dropped in the outfield. The Challengers offence came back in the first and scored to tie it up 1-1. The next inning was also a pitchers duel as both teams ace’s had three up-three down innings. Therwil decided to reserve their #1 arm for the last inning and went to their #2 guy, that move turned out to be the spark which lit the C’s offence.
Carl Varnauskas showed his speed by easily tuning long singles into doubles. The Challengers strategy was simple; if we don’t get doubles we will be stealing our way to second… quickly. And that is exactly what happened! Not one base runner was picked off, which constantly put runners in scoring position. One of the days biggest surprises was when Danilo Schneider turned a hard hit double into a four bagger. Danilo recognized the outfielders bobble and took off for third, as the third base coach noticed that the outfielder lobbed in the ball he quickly reacted and sent Schneider home. Rookie Migel Angerer also turned out to be a valuable addition to the Challengers as he hit a towering double to dead center which fell only about three feet short of a home run. The first game turned out to be a 19-1 blow out.
The second Game started almost identically as the first two innings where close. The Cadets stayed focused while coach Shemley constantly screamed, “we are still in 2nd place, no sleeping”. All in all the finals were a reflection of how the Cadets played the whole season, they not only out-hit their opponent, they out-pitched, -ran and -fielded them. The Challengers won the second game 9-0.
The kids also showed off their gloves and made it clear why they go by the slogan of “The only team that can beat the Challengers is the Challengers” by only committing two errors. Catcher Gabe Staub also made it clear that he is one of Switzerland’s most promising players. Not only did he let it be known that he is almost mature enough to call his own games he also threw out all runners and even came up with the game ending pickoff in the second game.
Let’s just hope they are able to keep on working out hard and follow up with another outstanding season in 2009.