The Challengers were outmatched against the still-undefeated defending champions, the Therwil Flyers, suffering two decisive defeats.

Due to the Palomino U19 tournament taking place simultaneously in Stuttgart, the Challengers had to significantly change their lineup once again. However, the fact that the duel between the two arch-rivals on Sunday at Zurich’s Heerenschürli ballpark was so one-sided, was primarily due to the strong performance of the visitors from Therwil. The defending champions started like a house on fire, their hits finding the gaps between the Challengers’ defensive players with surgical precision – or, as in the case of Taylor Carr in the first inning and Hide Oshima in the third, sending the ball over the wall and into the Dübendorf recreation area. Twelve runs in the first inning decided the game early on. The home team, with hits from Säntis Zeller and David Castillo and an RBI groundout by Noam Blickenstorfer in the fourth inning, barely managed to avert a shutout loss. The final score was 1-19. Shaen Bernhardt provided the highlight for Zurich with a double.

In the second game, the Flyers weren’t quite as dominant. Instead, they received help from some misplays by the Challengers defense, which led to a total of five unearned runs. Although the Basel team again scored three early runs in the first inning, that was all they could manage until the fourth, when the Challengers’ string of errors sealed their fate. The final score this time was 0-10. However, with only one hit, by Carsten Zuber in the sixth inning, there was little chance of winning against the reigning champions anyway. This coming Sunday, the Challengers need two wins against the Zurich Lions on their last preliminary round game day to maintain any chance of advancing to the master round.