Challengers 13, Unicorns 3

The last time the Challengers' played against the Huenenberg Unicorns it was opening day, and this writer, for one, was not expecting much of a challenge. First of all, this was Huenenberg's first season in NLB, and second of all...I mean the team is called the Unicorns. Hearing your opponents huddle together and shout out 1-2-3 Unicorns!!! before they charge on to the field is not exactly intimidating. As it turned out, the C's did sweep, but it was no cakewalk: Even with 3 NLA players, the Challengers barely managed to scratch out two wins. The lesson was clear: You gotta play the game hard...no matter how ridiculous the name of your opponent may be.

I had this lesson reaffirmed this past Saturday morning as I got ready to meet the rest of the team at Hardbruecke for the ride over. Before heading out the door, I leaned over my 2-week old son's crib and whispered, Your dad's going to go put up some big numbers today, Timmy. At that very moment, his tiny little baby hand shot up, catching me right in the cheek with his surprisingly pointy little baby fingernails. Where some might see a mere reflex, I saw something more - a clear message, which - borrowing from the great Tom Coughlin - was: Talk is cheap. Play the game. With that in mind, the Challengers put on a dominating performance, sweeping the two games by scores of 13-3 (mercy-rule) and 13-5 (and neither game was even as close as the score might indicate) to clinch the third-seed in the upcoming NLB playoffs.

In the first inning of the first game, the Challengers managed to once again run themselves out of an inning. With two outs, Renzo Falcone singled, stole second, and then took third on a wild pitch. When Carlos Nepomuceno reached on a fielder's choice, the Challengers had runners on the corners. As per usual, given the situation, Nepomuceno broke for second on the next pitch, and - as per usual - the catcher didn't throw through to second. Unfortunately for the Challengers, Falcone decided to try to score on the throw, which was cut off by the third baseman and fired back home in time to nail Renzo who didn't slide (apparently he has yet to master that particular skill...I'm not kidding, that's what someone actually told me, but I'm rather skeptical). Falcone has been swinging a hot bat lately, but his inattention on the base-paths has cost the team runs on several occasions. Well, maybe he'd find a way to make up for it later...

After Nick Lehmann retired the side in order in the bottom of the first, the Challengers got the offense going in the top of the second. With one out, Adderly Sarmiento singled, stole second, and then went to third on a single by Alex Gordon. After Gordon stole second, Daiki Sato followed with a single to center, scoring Sarmiento and sending Gordon to third (Just as an aside, for some reason Daiki is listed in the play by play as Abalo Estevez Oscar on spielplan.ch. I can't even hazard a guess as to where THAT name came from, but I like it). After Oscar stole second, and Lehmann walked, Kurt Kovac brought Gordon home with an RBI ground-out to third, making it 2-0 Challengers.

In the bottom of the inning, Lehmann once again retired the side in order (with an assist from a sliding catch by yours truly in left, I must add), and then the Challengers went right back to work at the plate. Falcone led off the inning by demonstrating that he doesn't NEED to know how to slide, hammering a 2-2 pitch over the fence in left for the team's first home run of the year, and bringing the entire team out of the dugout. Perhaps in retribution (although probably not), Nepomuceno was plunked with the next pitch. Taking his revenge, Carlos stole second and then went to third on a single by Oliver Bernet (who promptly stole second himself). Following a ground out to the pitcher, Gordon came to the plate looking to stretch the lead...and naturally, popped a 10 mph fastball (all speeds approximate) straight up into the air behind home plate.

As I threw the bat down in disgust and began loosing a stream of self-directed profanity on the way towards first, the baseball gods offered me a gift: the catcher somehow dropped the ball, giving me new life. Never wanting to be that guy that doesn't take advantage of such gifts, Gordon (me) promptly drilled the next pitch through the hole on the right-side, scoring Nepomuceno and Bernet, and making it 5-0 Challengers. After Sato reached second on an error, and Lehmann walked, the Challengers had the bases loaded with the top of the order coming up. Kovac grounded out to the pitcher, who threw home to force out Gordon, but Yusuke Azuma singled to score Sato. With the bases still loaded, Falcone came up for the second time in the inning - undoubtedly with another home run swing on his mind - but popped out to end the inning.

Trailing by a score of 6-0, the Unicorns got two runs back in the bottom of the third, thanks to some sloppy infield play by the Challengers. With two outs and a runner on third, Lehmann induced a grounder back to the mound, which looked to end the inning. However Lehmann's throw, despite being perfectly on target, was dropped by Bernet at first (for some reason, the runner on third didn't even bother trying to run home on the play), putting runners on the corners. After a stolen base, Lehmann induced another ground-ball, this time to short, but once again the Challengers couldn't get out of their own way: Kovac's throw was high and off-line, and couldn't be handled by Bernet, allowing two runs to score. Lehmann finally got the third out on a fly ball to left, but what should have been a 6-0 game was now 6-2. The Challengers got one of those runs back in the top of the fourth: Nepomuceno singled, stole second, and then scored on a single by Bernet (who was then thrown out trying to advance to second).

After Lehmann worked around a single in the bottom of the inning, the Challengers finally put the game out of reach in the fifth. Lehmann led off with his third walk of the game, and after Kovac singled, Azuma walked to load the bases. Falcone knocked in Lehmann with a fielder's choice grounder to short, which forced Azuma at second. After Falcone stole second, Nepomuceno followed with a fly to right, which appeared deep enough to score the runner from third, but Kovac didn't tag. After the bench started getting on him for not running, Kovac turned and pointed at third-base coach Werner Zingg, who had apparently told him to stay. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake by Zingg, given Kovac's speed, but ultimately it didn't matter: Bernet drove in both Kovac and Falcone with a single. Sarmiento followed with an RBI single of his own (it's unclear how Bernet got to second...sorry!). After Gordon walked, Sato singled to load the bases. Consecutive throwing errors by the Unicorn's pitcher allowed Sarmiento and Gordon to score, making it 13-2 Challengers.

The Unicorns managed to score one more run, accounting for the final score of 13-3 final. One item of note in the last innings was the dominant relief work of Oli Christen in the bottom of the 6th. He blew away the first two batters with fast balls before getting the last batter to ground out to second. For whatever reason, Christen appears to be much more comfortable, not to mention effective, coming on in relief rather than starting. Regardless, more performances like that from Oli would be a huge boost to the Challengers.

by Alex Gordon