In their second night game in two days against the Zurich Barracudas Academy, the Challengers retained the upper hand this time. After an early 11-2 lead, they struggled but eventually celebrated a 12-10 victory.
Tuesday’s night game didn’t quite match the quality of the game the night before. But at least, after an initially one-sided game, it was exciting again. The Challengers were determined to respond to the narrow loss from Monday night and were in excellent form from the start. Aided by two errors from the Barracudas defense, the Challengers hammered ten runs in the second inning on seven hits and three walks. Kazuki Sato’s RBI single, Pete Nelson’s base-clearing double and Ilai Blickenstorfer’s two-run single provided the comforting lead. After the first storm had passed over the Academy, the home team also clocked in. With four runs in the bottom half of the second inning and two runs in the fourth, making the score 8-11, they came within striking distance again. While the Challengers offense failed to capitalize on opportunities to increase their lead, the defense was virtually flawless, with pitchers Florin Kämpfer, Shaen Bernhardt, and closer Ilai Blickenstorfer giving up only four hits and recording twelve strikeouts, ultimately securing the win.
Bastian Kämpfer shone with three hits, including two doubles, Jordi Bucher delivered three hits, Ilai Blickenstorfer had two hits and two RBI, Pete Nelson collected three RBI and Mike Siemers added two RBI. Bernhardt took the win with 2.2 innings pitched, in which he gave up just one hit, two runs and three walks with two strikeouts, while Blickenstorfer, in his last game of the season before his exchange semester in the USA, put an exclamation mark behind the derby with three strikeouts in a row and his first save of the season.

The small local derby between the Zurich Barracudas Academy and the Zurich Challengers’ second team brought the spectators an exciting baseball night and a dramatic ending. The Barracudas took their first, but decisive, lead in the final inning and celebrated a 4-3 walk-off win.
Monday evenings aren’t the kind of evenings one associates with baseball in Zurich. However, today an unscheduled, small city derby took place at the Heerenschürli ballpark. After the Hünenberg Unicorns withdrew, the Challengers inherited their spot in the intermediate round – and had to make up their games accordingly. The Challengers were able to count on reinforcements from the Unicorns for this mission. Ari Lonstein deserves special mention. The American pitcher delivered a strong performance. He gave up just three hits and collected fourteen strikeouts, but still ended up as the loser. This was partly due to the Challengers offense only managing five hits and three runs against Barracudas pitchers Xavier Scheffler and Naël Frey, but also due to the Challengers defense making mistakes in game-deciding situations, which the Barracudas were able to exploit with utmost coolness.
After taking a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning, the visitors opened the door again by allowing two runs, an RBI single by Nils Brüderli and a wild pitch, to bring their opponents back into the game, making it 3-2. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Challengers had the opportunity to end the game with a double play. But the throw to first base was way too high – and the game continued. Shortly after, Nils Brüderli sent the ball to right field, initially tying the score at 3-3 and then, because the throw to home plate was again too high, Seiya Eigenheer crossed the home plate for a much celebrated 4-3 walk-off win by the home team.
Thus, Lonstein’s good pitching performance, Bastian Kämpfer’s first run in the third inning, and Pete Nelson’s 2-run single in the fifth inning were worthless. The two teams will meet again tomorrow, Tuesday, at 6:30 p.m. at the Heerenschürli.

It was a turbulent week for the NLB-Team. On Wednesday, the Challengers learned that, due to the Hünenberg Unicorns’ withdrawal, they would inherit their spot in the intermediate round and thus also in the NLB playoffs. However, on Saturday they immediately had to take over the Unicorns’ slot on the field against the Lausanne Indians as well. And ultimately they won both games by one run.
Assembling a team on such short notice, especially during the summer holidays, would have been virtually impossible. But the Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation approved the midweek transfer of three Unicorns players to the Challengers, enabling the games against the Lausanne Indians to take place. The first game of the day featured a pitcher’s duel between Maxime Flayol for the Indians and Ari Lonstein, the Unicorn, who was essentially a guest pitcher for the Challengers. Flayol delivered a strong performance for Lausanne, giving up only five hits and two runs, one earned, with one walk and six strikeouts. However, this wasn’t enough for the victory. Lonstein even topped this performance. He allowed just three hits and one run in seven innings, with four walks and thirteen strikeouts. On offense, Fabrizio Bucher organized the Challengers’ two runs with a single in the first inning and an RBI groundout in the third, while the defense was able to stave off the tie in the top of the seventh inning thanks to an out against the Indians’ batter-runner, who was trying to stretch a single into a double.
The second game was not only a battle between the Indians and the Challengers, but also a battle against the elements. The game had to be called off early in the fifth inning due to heavy rain. And the Challengers once again had the better ending. In the previous inning, Kazuki Sato scored the decisive run on a wild pitch, making the score 7-6. The Zurich team was previously down 2-5, but the Challengers turned the game around with an RBI groundout by Sato in the second inning and runs by Unicorns catcher Marvin Müller, Mike Siemers, and Noam Blickenstorfer in the third.
By advancing to the intermediate round, the Challengers will now play two night games against the Zurich Barracudas Academy at their home ballpark, Heerenschürli, on Monday and Tuesday, August 4 and 5.