The Challengers delivered a strong performance in their home game against the Bern Cardinals on Mother’s Day. With numerous hits and nearly flawless defense, the Zurich team controlled the games at all times and celebrated two commanding home victories, 14-4 and 12-5.
The visitors only briefly had the upper hand at the beginning of the opening game, when the Cardinals got off to a perfect start with four runs in the first inning. But with a ground-rule double from Isabelle Tan and a base-clearing double from Simone Zurschmitten in the bottom half of the first inning the damage was quickly repaired from Zurich’s perspective. And in the second inning, after a run by Lara Müller on a wild pitch, Taylor McCants and Simona Cellar extended the lead to 10-4 with their two-run singles. Although the Cardinals repeatedly caused base traffic, the Challengers’ defense performed commandingly and didn’t allow any more runs. After four innings, the Challengers won 14-4.
Taylor McCants led the offense with two hits and three RBI, while Tamara Ammeter and birthday girl Carmen Lutz-Demetz had two hits each, and Anouchka Michel, Isabelle Tan, Simona Cellar, and Marianne Aellen scored two runs apiece. Simone Zurschmitten was credited with the win with two shutout innings.
The home team immediately took control in the second game as well. Karen Hendren opened the scoring with an RBI in the first inning, before the Challengers extended the lead to 6-0 thanks to Marianne Aellen’s two-run single, Anouchka Michel’s RBI single, Isabelle Tan’s RBI bunt single, and Karen Hendren’s sac bunt. The Cardinals, however, stayed in the game with some solid plays, including a two-run double by Nicole Kühni and an RBI double by Stephanie Mischler. This reduced the Challengers’ lead to 9-5 in the fifth inning. But the Zurich team managed to snag the three runs they needed to win the mercy rule by capitalizing on two errors by the Cards to secure a 12-5 victory.
Carmen Lutz-Demetz, Simone Zurschmitten, and Tamara Ammeter each had two hits, and Ammeter earned her second win of the season in three innings as a relief pitcher. Thanks to the split between last year’s finalists, the Wittenbach Panthers and the Zurich Barracudas, the Challengers, the only undefeated team, currently lead the standings. The next two weekends will reveal where the Zurich team truly stands. They will face the Panthers and the Barracudas one after the other.
