Flyers stomp Challengers 12-3 in regular season finale

The Challengers concluded their regular season with a frustrating loss to the Therwil Flyers.

Surrendering six runs in the second inning on five walks by Ryan Byrne and two errors by second baseman Francisco Colindres proved costly, and the Challengers' offense was stifled by Stefan Koller who threw seven impressive innings.

Byrne's trouble with locating his pitches, coupled with the poor defensive showing and an inexistent offense led to a clear verdict between the two arch rivals.

The Challengers were lucky to avoid a 10-run mercy-rule loss by scoring three times in the bottom of the eighth off reliever Taka Oshima, but that was the only positive that day.

Pinch hitter Juan De La Rosa drew a walk to lead off that inning. Thomas Blank, also pinch-hitting, came through with a double to left, and Jesus Martinez knocked in both runners with a double off the center field wall, missing a home run by about three feet.

But he scored three batters later, anyway, as Eidrys Reyes plated him with an RBI-double with two outs.

Oshima escaped further damage by striking out Thomas Burger for the third out.

The two teams will face off in the Playoff Semifinals beginning next Saturday in Therwil, followed by Game 2 at the Heerenschürli on Sunday.

Game notes
The last time the Challengers lost to the Flyers by the mercy rule was a 12-1 loss on August 13, 2011. ...Reyes lost his batting title from last year despite going 2-for-4 and finishing with a .451 batting average. Taka Oshima went 2-for-5 and claims his first batting title with a .464 mark.