Three Challengers teams will compete in a doubleheader on home soil the upcoming weekend. The Softball-Team and the NLA-Team play on Saturday, the NLB-Team does work on Sunday.
The women will welcome the Lucerne Eagles on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on the Klopstockwiese in Zurich-Enge. After the split against the reigning champions Wittenbach on Opening Day, the Challengers are clearly favorites against the young Eagles team.
Also on Saturday there will be a reprise of the last two finals of the Swiss Baseball Championship between the two arch-rivals Zurich Challengers and Therwil Flyers at the Heerenschürli ballpark in Zurich-Schwamendingen. The game starts at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. No duel has been played more often in Swiss baseball. In the last 30 years, the two teams have met 164 times, with the Flyers clearly ahead with 101 to 63 wins. On the other hand there is no team in the league that has won against the Flyers as often as the Challengers.
The NLB-Team meets the Hünenberg Unicorns on Sunday. The games start at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Heerenschürli ballpark. While the Zurich team won Game 1 in a split in the local derby on Opening Day, the Unicorns are still waiting for their first win of the season after two home defeats against the Lucerne Eagles.
Posts in the NLA category:
Three homegames next weekend
Swiss Cup games postponed
The Swiss Cup game between the Zurich Challengers and the second team from the Therwil Flyers scheduled for today at 2 p.m. has been canceled due to an unplayable field because of heavy rain. No make-up date has been announced so far.
The game between the Challengers NLB-Team and the Zurich Barracudas Academy scheduled for Sunday at Embrach Klink Hard will not be played.
Revival of the Swiss Cup and Season Opener for 1st League-Team
Next weekend the Swiss Cup will celebrate its revival with a completely new mode. And the 1st League-Team is the last team in the Challengers organization to start the 2024 season with a home game on Sunday.
After a break of over 10 years, a Swiss Cup will be held again for the first time in 2024. The mode has been completely overhauled. In the first part of the competition there is now a group phase in which the 16 NLA- and NLB-Teams have been divided into four groups of four and everyone plays a single game against each other on three game days. The top two teams in each group qualify for the knockout round, in which the Swiss Cup winner is determined in the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. The winner of the competition will take part in the European Federations Cup 2025. The Challengers NLA-Team will meet the second team of the Therwil Flyers on the first game day of the group phase in Therwil. The game will take place on Saturday, April 20th at 2 p.m. at Therwil Känelmatt. The second team will play the Zurich Barracudas Academy on Sunday, April 21 at 11 a.m. at Embrach PZ Hard in a duel of two NLB teams.
On Sunday, April 21st, also the 1st League-Team will open the new season as the last team in the Challengers organization. The Challengers’ third team welcomes the Zurich Barracudas and the SG Wil Pirates / Zurich Lions at the Heerenschürli ballpark. The games start at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Strong reaction from the Challengers
One day after the unsuccessful opening day, the Challengers struck back. And the answer was impressive. While the reigning champion lost to its local rivals Zurich Barracudas 1-13 on Friday, the Challengers turned the tables on Saturday and won 13-7.
While the offense failed the day before, this time the Challengers started strong. Coach Thomas Burger’s team seemed to have thoroughly analyzed the false start and made the right adjustments. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the championship team suddenly appeared on the pitch again. The Challengers opened the game with hits from James Sanders, Robert Sedin, Leonel Sosa Marte and Tobias Siegrist for a quick 3-0 lead. The Barracudas came back again, because the Challengers weren’t solid in defense today either, and took the lead of 5-3 in the fourth inning. Anyone who thought that the three runs at the start of the game was just a brief flare-up for the home team was quickly proven wrong.
With an RBI-double by Ryan Byrne in the fourth inning and an RBI-double by Säntis Zeller in the fifth inning, the Challengers tied the game again before the MVP of the championship season, James Sanders, put his colors at 7-5 with a 2-run double. And the C’s selt the deal in the seventh frame. The defending champions followed up with four more runs from Simon Steffen and James Sanders. Finally the offense produced 13 runs on 18 hits. The Challengers thus delivered an impressive reaction and also clocked in for the 2024 season a day late.
Season Opener ends with a loss
Summer has arrived in Zurich right at the start of the 2024 Swiss Baseball Championship season. However, the sun did not shine for the Challengers at the season opener against their cross-town rivals Zurich Barracudas. The Challengers lost Game 1 with a score of 1-13.
The mission to defend their title is off to a tough start for the Zurich Challengers. The reigning champion was still visibly rusty and was inferior to its local rivals in all aspects of the game. The result of 13-1 speaks for itself, but due to the 13-1 hits and eight errors on the home team’s side there were no doubts about the outcome of the game. At the beginning it was tight game. The Barracudas scored their first run of the season in the third inning with a sacrifice fly from Nick Fischer by Simon Brändli. One inning later the season opener was already decided. The Barracudas produced six runs on five hits and three errors from the opponent to take an 8-0 lead and were no longer looking in the rearview mirror.
Not much was going well with the Challengers. The highlight from their perspective was the outfield assist by left fielder Jack Siemers at home in the fourth frame. At this point the deficit was already six runs. The Challengers have the opportunity to do better tomorrow evening. At 6 p.m. the two teams will meet again for the second local derby in Zurich’s Heerenschürli ballbark.
Opening Weekend with six home games
The new baseball and softball season begins with the Opening Weekend. Challengers fans can enjoy six home games from Friday to Sunday.
It starts with the NLA-Team, which opens its mission to defend the Swiss championship title against their cross-town rivals Zurich Barracudas with a night game in the Heerenschürli ballpark on Friday, April 12th at 6:30 p.m. Game 2 of this two-game series will take place on Saturday, April 13th from 5:30 p.m. also in the Heerenschürli with the official Challengers Season Opening Party.
The Challengers Softball-Team will also start the new season on Saturday, April 13th. In a reprise of the last three final series in Swiss softball, the blue and red welcome the reigning Swiss Champions Wittenbach Panthers on the Klopstockwiese in Zurich-Enge. The games start at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
The NLB-Team opens its season on Sunday, April 14th in the Heerenschürli ballpark. The greatly rejuvenated second team will face the Zurich Barracudas second team in the small city derby. The games start at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Opening Day on April 12 to 14
The Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation has published the schedules for the 2024 season. The season starts on Friday night, April 12th with the first Zurich derby of the season. From now on the game schedules for all the leagues are available on the Baseball and Softball Manager website.
The most important changes concern the withdrawal of the Bern Cardinals from the Baseball NLA, so that the NLA will consist of just four teams in 2024 with the Zurich Barracudas, Therwil Flyers, Wil Pirates and the Challengers. The NLB will now consist of three groups, with the Challengers facing the second team of the Barracudas, the Hünenberg Unicorns and the Luzern Eagles. After a break of several years the Swiss Cup is experiencing a revival. The 2024 edition of the Swiss Cup will be special. First a preliminary round will be played in four groups of four teams, each with one NLA and three NLB teams, while the knockout phase will start from the quarter-finals with the games between the respective group winners and one of the group runners-up. Semi-finals and finals will take place on the 7th/8th of September at the Heerenschürli ballpark.
The NLA team is the first team in the Challengers organization to start the new season with two night games at the Heerenschürli ballpark on April 12th and 13th against the Zurich Barracudas. On Saturday, April 13, there will be a reprise of last year’s softball final between the Challengers and the Wittenbach Panthers at the Klopstockwiese. On Sunday, April 14, the NLB team opens the 2024 season with a doubleheader against the Zurich Barracudas.
Challengers finish Round Robin in 2nd place
In the last game of the preliminary round, the Challengers met the first-placed Therwil Flyers again. The Zurich team was able to keep up for four innings. Then the reigning champion made rushed away and finally won with 16-2.
For the first time this season, the Zurich team presented with Nick and Jack Siemers and Florin Kämpfer three juniors in their starting lineup. They did their job well. A ball put into play by Kämpfer caused an error in the Flyers defense and brought the 1-1 tie through Marco Limacher, who had put himself in scoring position with a lead-off triple. The Flyers followed up with a triple from Chris Horne in the third inning and then a solo home run from Taka Oshima to make it 3-1. In the fourth frame the Challengers reduced the lead to 2-3 and kept hoping for a positive result. Luis Mateo Jimenez brought home again Limacher with an RBI single. But then the Flyers stepped up a gear and showed why they have been the undefeated champions since 2019. With surgical precision their balls found the gaps in the Challengers defense, so the game ended after seven innings with mercy rule.
Luis Mateo Jimenez and Oliver Bernet Garcia led the Challengers offense with two hits each. In two weeks the C’s will meet city rivals Zurich Barracudas in the playoff semi-finals.
Flyers walk away with win
In the duel between the first placed Flyers and the second placed Challengers, the reigning champion from Therwil quickly ensures clear conditions. The Challengers defend themselves as best they can and can claim some positive points for themselves.
The dfending champion from Therwil already made the decisive difference in innings three and four by submitting no fewer than nine runs. After all, the Challengers also came to a good inning. After Adam Greenberg scored the first run for Zurich on a wild pitch, Marco Limacher followed with an RBI double and Carlos Nepomuceno with another RBI to make it 3-9. In the next few innings Hayden Jung-Goldberg kept the Basel offensive in check, but the C’s couldn’t get more than their fourth run through a sac fly by Adam Greenberg. Ultimately, they left the field with a 4-11 loss.
Leonel Sosa Marte had four hits, while Nick Siemers contributed two hits. The Challengers will have the opportunity to take revenge tomorrow, Saturday. At the end of the preliminary round, they meet the Flyers again at 5.30 p.m. in the Heerenschürli ballpark.
Win against cross-town rival
The Challengers defeated the Zurich Barracudas 11-9 in an exciting Zurich derby on Wednesday night and secured home advantage for the playoff semifinals. There the C’s will meet the Barracudas again.
However, the home team dressed in green got off to a better start. The Barracudas took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and held a 5-2 lead after four frames. But in the fifth inning the Challengers made a big turnaround. After a lead-off single by Leonel Sosa Marte, Carlos Nepomuceno made it 3-5 with what was already his third hit of the game. He set off a veritable avalanche. Patrick Maier brought his team up to 4-5 with an RBI single before Nick Siemers and Hayden Jung-Goldberg’s RBI’s turned the game around. But that wasn’t all. Regis Reinhard made it 7-5 with a double and Leonel Sosa Marte capped the inning with a 2-run double to make it 9-5.
But anyone who had thought that the game was over was way off the mark. Maybe one or the other thought so. But not Livio Bundi. The Barracudas DH brought new life into his squad with a two-run homer in the second half of the fifth frame, and he even repeated the feat in the seventh inning to restart the game again at 9-9.
But the last exclamation point was set by the guests. Marco Limacher started the ninth inning with a walk and scored the go-ahead run on an RBI triple from Nick Siemers. And Siemers scored an insurance run after an RBI single from Regis Reinhard to make it 11-9. However, Luis Mateo Jimenez did not need one at all. The pitcher ended the game with three quick outs.
With the win the Challengers now have ten wins and four losses and can no longer be pushed out of second place. On Friday and Saturday night, the Challengers will meet the undisputed leaders Therwil Flyers twice at the Heerenschürli ballpark. The outcome of these two games does not change the fact that the next Zurich derby with the Barracudas will take place in the semi-finals.