The Swiss Baseball & Softball Awards Night took place on Saturday, November 25th at the Crowne Plaza in Zurich. The champion teams of the various leagues were honored. The Challengers received the awards as Swiss champions in the Baseball NLA and the U15 Cadets. The Wittenbach Panthers won in softball, the Zurich Barracudas in the NLB, Wittenbach-Romanshorn in the 1st league and the Geneva Dragons in the U12 Juveniles.
The individual awards were also presented. In the Baseball NLA, Taka Oshima of the Therwil Flyers was named MVP, while Challengers pitcher James Sanders was named Playoff MVP. The MVP award in softball went to Kim Zehnder from the Wittenbach Panthers, MVP in the NLB went to Devin Flühmann from the Therwil Flyers, the award in the first league went to Marvin Müller from the Hünenberg Unicorns.
Newly inducted into the Hall of Fame was Challengers legend Peter Rothenhäusler. He played a leading role in the implementation of scoring in the early 1980s, was involved in the first Swiss version of the regulations and was active as a coach for the juniors and in softball as well as on the Challengers club board.
The Swiss national baseball team was also honored, as they unexpectedly finished in 12th place in their first ever participation in the European Championship and thus qualified for the 2025 European Championship. National coach Chris Byrnes was named “Coach of the Year”, while social media specialist Marc Fussenegger was named “Official of the Year”. The proceeds from the Awards Night will benefit the Swiss national teams.
