The doubleheader between the Lucerne Eagles and the Zurich Challengers was not for the faint of heart. The two teams pushed each other to the limit over a total of four and a half hours. While the Challengers ultimately prevailed in Game 1 with a clear 15-8 victory, they were only able to settle Game 2 in the third extra inning.

The visitors from Central Switzerland got off to a better start. The Eagles took a 5-0 lead in the second inning. However, the home team didn’t panic and narrowed the lead to 4-6 by the third inning. And they turned the game around in the fourth. The Challengers loaded the bases with no outs before Anouchka Michel with an RBI groundout and Lara Müller with an RBI single tied the game at 6-6. Once they got going, the Challengers never let up. Marianne Aellen gave her team its first lead with an RBI single, before Simona Cellar added an RBI groundout and Carmen Lutz-Demetz added a two-run double and a steal to home to make it 11-6. The Eagles narrowed the gap to 8-11, but Aellen and Cellar’s RBI singles, along with Lutz-Demetz’s another two-run double, ended the game early in the fifth.

Carmen Lutz-Demetz had three hits and four RBI, Simona Cellar had two hits and four RBI, while Tamara Ammeter, Lara Müller, and Marianne Aellen each collected two hits.

The second game featured a pitcher’s duel between American Georgia Ingle for the Eagles and Leandra Simitovic for the Challengers. The battle was on a knife-edge throughout the game. No team ever led by more than a run, and the Challengers managed to tie a visitors’ lead four times. The Eagles opened the scoring in the second inning with an RBI double by Noelani Scazzariello. The lead held until the fifth inning before Isabelle Tan broke the Eagles’ defense with a bunt single. But in the very next inning, the Central Swiss team struck back with an RBI double by Michelle Keller. But the Challengers immediately tied the game again with a bunt single by Lara Müller. With the score tied at 2-2, the game went into extra innings. And the drama unfolded. The Eagles brought the ghost runner across the plate in both the seventh and eighth innings, but the Challengers also managed to score a run on both occasions. The visitors escaped a bases loaded situation in both innings and thus avoided defeat. In the tenth inning, however, the Challengers survived the Eagles’ attack unscathed, giving them another chance to win. And indeed, they did. Designated runner Marianne Aellen advanced to third base on a wild pitch and profited from an opposing error to secure the 5-4 walk-off win.

Georgia Ingle ultimately surrendered twelve hits and five runs in nine innings, only one earned, with 13 strikeouts, while Leandra Simitovic became the first pitcher in Challengers history to pitch ten innings, in which she gave up ten hits and four runs, also only one earned, and recorded eight strikeouts. The one against Alexandra Aregger in the ninth inning was the 900th strikeout of her career.