The Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation has published the schedules for the Baseball NLA and NLB. For the 2025 season seven teams will play in the NLA and NLB each, after the NLA gradually shrank to just four teams in recent years. The mode has also been completely overhauled with this change.
In addition to the four existing teams Therwil Flyers, Wil Pirates, Zurich Barracudas and Zurich Challengers, the Lucerne Eagles, the Sissach Frogs and the second team of the Zurich Barracudas will also be playing in the NLA. In the preliminary round, all teams play a doubleheader against every other team. When each team has played twelve games, the standings will be split. The best four teams play another doubleheader against each other, and the two best teams then play in the playoff final for the Swiss championship title.
The seven teams in the NLB are the Embrach Mustangs, the Hünenberg Unicorns, the Lausanne Indians and the three Zurich city clubs, the Zurich Barracudas with their Academy Team, the Zurich Lions and the Zurich Challengers. The Zurich teams will not play their first home games this season until June. Due to a massive construction delay in the “New Backstop” project at the Heerenschürli ballpark in Zurich-Schwamendingen the facility is closed until the end of May.
The Challengers’ second team will open its season on Sunday, April 13th with a doubleheader against the Therwil Flyers’ second team. The NLA-Team will not play its opening day until after Easter. The Challengers will face the Sissach Frogs on Saturday, April 26 at Sissach Tannbrunn.
Schedules for Baseball National Leagues published
Construction delay in Heerenschürli
The construction progress on the “New Ball Backstop” project in the Heerenschürli ballpark is not progressing as planned. According to the current status, the construction delay is two months, which is why the first home games for the city clubs will not be able to take place in the Heerenschürli stadium until May 31. The Challengers will therefore have to play their first home games of the 2025 season away from home and will not be able to play in front of a home crowd until mid-June. The practices will also be severely restricted in April and May.
Challengers GA on February 2nd
This year’s General Assembly of the Challengers Baseball & Softball Club Zurich will take place on Sunday, February 2nd at the Linde Oberstrass restaurant in Zurich.
Before the ordinary general meeting, which begins at 3 p.m., the junior meeting will take place from 1 p.m.
Happy Holidays
As 2024 comes to a close, we want to thank each of you for your dedication and energy throughout the year. We wish you and your loved ones a wonderful holiday season, a Happy New Year, and we look forward to seeing you at our GV on Sunday, February 2.
Your Challengers Board members
Armin Blickenstorfer new assistant coach of the U15 National Team
The Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation (SBSF) has named Armin Blickenstorfer the new assistant coach of the U15-Cadets national team.
The original Challenger started his baseball career in 1989 with the Schwamendingers and went through all age groups and teams in Zurich North. He took part in various European Cup tournaments with the Challengers and became Swiss champion four times. He gained his first experience as a coach during his active career. He later led the softball team for two seasons and was most recently the coach of the Challengers’ U12 youth team for many years, with whom he also won four Swiss championship titles.
In the last two years, Blickenstorfer took over as head coach of the Swiss Little League team, which impressed with strong performances, particularly last year in Kutno, Poland. The move to the U15 Cadets national team as assistant to the new head coach David Castillo is therefore a logical next step for the Zurich native.
Volunteer Day – Thank you
Volunteering is the foundation of club sport in Switzerland. Of the approximately 350,000 positions that need to be filled in Swiss club sport, a good 335,000 are unpaid. According to a study by Swiss Olympic, volunteers provide services with a “hypothetical value” of around two billion francs each year.
This results in around 75 million hours of voluntary work per year. 44 million hours are provided by volunteers, the rest are work by helpers. This makes it clear why the study describes volunteering as the “foundation”. However, the outlook for the future is not entirely optimistic. There are many concerns. The clubs are often dependent on the commitment of a few people. Recruiting and integrating volunteers is becoming increasingly difficult.
On today’s Volunteer Day, the Challengers Baseball & Softball Club Zurich would like to thank all of its volunteer members and all of its helpers for their commitment to the club, to the sport, and to our youth.
League meetings and presidents’ meeting in the House of Sports
This year’s league meetings and the presidents’ meeting of the Swiss Baseball and Softball Federation will take place on November 23rd in the House of Sports in Ittigen near Bern.
The SBSF has also announced that both President Dagmar Voith Leemann and Christof Rissi, the person responsible for grassroots sport, will resign at the general assembly on February 22nd, 2025. The search for successors is underway.
Start of indoor practices
After the fall break, indoor practices will begin for the Challengers teams and thus preparations for the 2025 season. The gyms remain unchanged from last year, with pitcher/catcher practice in the Ruggächer sports hall in Zurich-Affoltern, baseball practice in the Probstei gym in Zurich-Schwamendingen, softball practice in the Gabler gym in Zurich-Enge and junior practices in the Auhof and Herzogenmühle gyms in Zurich-Schwamendingen.
Continue Reading » Start of indoor practices2024 season ends with the veteran’s game
All generations of Challengers met on Wednesday night for the traditional veteran’s game. The event also marked the end of the season for the Challengers in the Heerenschürli baseball stadium, after the three men’s teams also played their last championship games of the season last weekend.
The juniors will once again have an extensive indoor season with various tournaments throughout German-speaking Switzerland, while the seniors will continue in April next year with the start of the next baseball and softball season. Meanwhile, the construction machines have already arrived at the Heerenschürli to install the new 26-meter-high back stop during the off-season. If the weather plays along, the construction works should be completed in time for the start of the season in March 2025.
A conciliatory end to the season for the 1st League Team
The Challengers’ third team played the placement games with the three fourth-placed teams in the preliminary round groups for places ten to twelve on Sunday. The Zurich team faced the Geneva Tigers and the hosts Bern Cardinals. The game against the western Swiss team was lost 10-13 due to one bad inning, but the Zurich team narrowly won against the Bern Cardinals 11-10.
The Challengers got off to an excellent start against the Geneva Tigers. They quickly loaded the bases and with walks from Pete Nelson, Niilo Benz and an RBI single from Jimmy Siemers as well as another run on a wild pitch, the score was 4-0. By the third inning, the Zurich team had extended its lead to 6-1. But then the Geneva team also turned on the turbo. The Tigers produced no fewer than twelve runs with ten hits and four walks. The Challengers managed to score another four runs, but ultimately had to admit the 10-13 defeat.
The Zurich team fell behind 0-5 in Game 2 against the Bern Cardinals, but their offense got off to an even better start. The Challengers scored no fewer than ten runs in the first inning. The Bern offense found the right answer and tied the game again in the third inning to 10-10. But the Challengers took the lead again in the bottom half of the third frame. Reinforcement player Naël Frey scored on a passed ball to make it 11-10. There were no more runs after that. In the last inning, the Cardinals even had the tying run on third base, but the Challengers defense survived the last Bern attack unscathed. This means that a season marked by countless weather-related cancellations ends on a positive note for the Challengers with the eleventh place.