The Challengers also decisively lost Game 2 of the best-of-three playoff quarterfinal series against the Zurich Barracudas’ second team. This brought the Challengers’ season to an end.

After the Challengers’ second team won three of their four games in the second round, they were unable to wpost a win in the playoffs against their local rivals. Just as in the series opener a week ago, Game 2 was also decided early. Although the visitors scored the first run with an RBI single from Bastian Kämpfer, and the Barracudas were unable to add twelve runs again in the first inning, the Challengers’ defense committed three errors in the first frame, resulting in four unearned runs and an early 1-5 deficit. The home team clearly had no intention of playing a deciding game 3. The Barracudas kept their foot on the gas and sealed the Challengers’ season with another five runs in the third inning, making the score 14-2.

The Challengers did a bit of cosmetic work at the end. Jasper Freigang hit an RBI double and Florin Kämpfer a 2-run single, before Daniel Smith and Noam Blickenstorfer scored on an error by the Barracudas defense, and Jasper Freigang scored his team’s final run of the 2025 season on a wild pitch. The final score was 18-8.

NLB Playoff Quarterfinal, best-of-three: Zurich Challengers II vs. Zurich Barracudas II, 0-2