Challengers christen new ballpark with a 6-5 come-from-behind victory

The first game at the new Heerenschürli ballpark was a memorable one. Leading 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Barracudas threw away the game by committing four errors, a balk and a wild pitch, enabling the Challengers to score four times.

Longtime groundskeeper Marco Visetti threw the ceremonial first pitch, saying It's a huge honor to open that field whose planning began 11 years ago and now presents itself as the nicest diamond in Switzerland.

Visetti was given a present by the Baseball & Softball Federation of the Kanton of Zurich, and shook hands with several players before the game.

Also present were several veterans who founded baseball in Switzerland and played under circumstances that were hardly worthy to be called regular baseball games.

Coinciding with the Challengers' 30 year anniversary, the original Zurich team was confident to record that first win at the new grounds.

But for seven innings, the Barracudas had the upper-hand as they hung on to a 3-2 lead.

The Challengers' Ueli von Burg scored the park's first run as he crossed the plate in the first inning on Tobias Siegrist's RBI-single.

The Barracudas answered with three unearned runs off starter Thomas Burger. Thomas Blank achieved the dubious honor to commit the very first error, followed by a sacrifice bunt, a single and yet another error by second baseman von Burg.

Tom Huston completed a poor defensive display by the Challengers by throwing away Manuel Hirtz' grounder, and Nderim Coma followed with yet another RBI-single.

Thomas Landis got one run back on an RBI-single off Coma in the bottom half of the inning.

Siegrist took over on the mound to start the third inning, and then shut down the Barracudas' offense for the next six innings.

But so did Coma, as the Challengers wasted several scoring chances.

Andy Rüesch relieved Coma in the top of the seventh and managed to retire the first three batters he faced.

But in the eighth, he lost his control, and his defense let him down, leading to four runs and a 6-3 Challengers lead.

In the top of the ninth, the Barracudas managed to cut the deficit to 6-5 on three singles and a hit-by-pitch.

They even had two runners in scoring position with one out, but Siegrist got Derek Bondo to pop out to shortstop, and struck out Miguel Conde to end the game.

Game notes
Andy Rüesch of the Barracudas had the first hit with a single in the first inning. ...There were no extra base hits in the inaugural game.