Barracudas walk off with 4-3 win to salvage split in season opener

After getting rallied in the season opener, the Zürich Barracudas themselves rallied late and walked off as 4-3 winners in Game 2 of Sunday's doubleheader at the Heerenschürli.

Newly acquired import Chris Michals battled through some early cramps in his leg to go the distance and earning his first win in Switzerland.

Nderim Coma led the Barracudas' offense with two doubles and a single, and Robert Sedin pitched into the eighth inning in his season debut on the mound.

The Challengers opened the score by scoring three times in the top of the third as left fielder Andi Rüesch misplayed Tobias Siegrist's floater, enabling two runners to score with two outs.

One batter later, shortstop Josh Crouse misplayed James Sanders' grounder to prolong the inning, and Saentis Zeller made the best out of it by ripping a double to right center to push across the third run.

The Barracudas answered with just one run in the bottom half of the inning on Crouse's RBI-double.

Both starters then followed up with four scoreless innings each. The Challengers wasted a big opportunity in the seventh as Siegrist grounded into an inning-ending 6-3 double play with the bases loaded to end the inning.

Sedin then was yanked after giving up a base-on-balls and an RBI-double in the bottom of the eighth with one out.

Harry Bregy took over trying to close out the game, but was greeted by Coma with an RBI-double that tied the game at 3-3.

A baserunning blunder by Coma one batter later and a 6-3 ground out ended the threat.

The Challengers couldn't figure out Michals in the ninth, going down in order.

The Barracudas led off the bottom half of the inning with a hit-by-pitch to Rüesch and a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher by Alejandro Lopez.

Harry Wischnewski then lined an offering by Bregy to left field, sending Rüesch home from second base for the win.

Game notes
Bregy has 41 career hits against the Barracudas, the most against any team. His double in the seventh inning came in his 1'000th plate appearance in the NLA. ...Zeller's double gave him 600 career total bases. ...With 1713 plate appearances, Siegrist tied Chris Palatinus for second place on the alltime list in the NLA.