The Bern Cardinals used big innings to grab two wins against the Zurich Challengers last weekend in the Swiss Baseball League championship series.
The Cardinals, the two-time defending Swiss champs, fell behind early in Game 1 but broke open a 2-2 game with seven runs in the fourth and coasted to an 11-5 victory.
The Challengers touched Bern starter Severin Fries for 11 hits in 6.2 innings on Saturday but failed to deliver in clutch situations. The top of the Zurich order, Saentis Zeller and Nick Lehman, were a combined 1-for-10.
The game was eerily similar to the Cardinals 15-4 blowout win over Zurich last year that ended the Challengers season. Bern scored eight runs in the first and never looked back en route to their second straight Swiss title.
Zurich opened the scoring in the third and briefly held a 2-0 lead behind a pair of RBI singles by Lehman and Thomas Landis. But John Baum’s two-run single in the same inning tied the score at 2-2.
A “meltdown” by Challengers starting pitcher Thomas Burger in the fourth enabled the Cardinals to score seven runs on just a hit and one error. Why the young pitcher had such a long leash in a championship game is beyond curious.
Burger struck out Angelo Rodriguez to start the inning – then totally lost it! Two hit batters, a couple of walks, two wild pitches that allowed runs to cross the plate, and a Jhonny Perigo home run later and Bern was leading 9-2 and staring at a 1-0 series lead.
The Challengers outhit the Cardinals 11-8 and had scoring threats in several innings but could not deliver the key hits. Fries worked out of a major jam in the third when he struck out Tobias Siegrist and got Chris Palatinus on a pop-up with runners on third and second.
Zurich was back in business in the fourth with Bryan Shemley at third and Patrick Zolling leading off second with Zeller at the plate. But Fries made the key pitches, again, getting the Challengers leadoff man to ground out to the first baseman.
Siegrist and Palatinus hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh for Zurich which scored three runs to make the score 10-5. The Cardinals Ron Zimmerman finished the scoring with a two-out solo homer in the eight inning.
Baum, Perigo, and Zimmerman paced Bern’s offensive attack collecting a pair of hits and driving home two runs apiece. Landis, Palatinus, and Shemley each had two hits for Zurich.
Fries (4-0) picked up the win while Burger (7-5) suffered his fifth loss of the season. Baum silenced the Challengers the final 2.1 innings and fanned three as the Cardinals moved a step closer to winning their third straight championship.
The Challengers grabbed an early 1-0 lead in Game 2 on Sunday after Zeller led off with a single, stole second, and scored on Siegrist RBI double. But Bern scored five runs in the third, one in the fourth, and three in the fifth to stake a commanding 9-2 lead. And, the Cardinals scoring parade had only just begun.
Coach Baum’s squad crossed home plate a mind-boggling 11 times in the sixth on just four hits to take a 20-2 lead and complete control of the Swiss Baseball League finals. Christoph Beyeler tossed eight solid innings for Bern to get the win while Zurich lefty Harry Bregy lasted only four innings and was tagged with the loss.
Bern will try to wrap up their third Swiss title in a row next weekend while Zurich will try to regroup and get back into the series with a couple of wins.
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