Frogs 7, Challengers 0

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S OVER: Lifeless Challengers Swept out of Playoffs by Frogs

I'd had a bad feeling about the upcoming games against Sissach all week. First, we found out that Kurt Kovac would be unavailable the next two weeks due to a vacation in Bali. There was also uncertainty as to whether Renzo Falcone or Adrian Chinea would be available (although ultimately both were able to play). Then I saw this e-mail in my challengers.ch mailbox: [Warning: for those with delicate sensibilities, just skip ahead]

Dear Gregy and team,
I will not be able to play saturday.
Reason: great curveball from Oli hit my balls without cup on monday, and i have an internal bleeding testicles. I'm out for at least a week from now.
I'm sorry for being so dumb.

You know what? I'm not even going to tell you who sent that e-mail, but I will give you a hint: of all the players who ever have, or ever will play for the Challengers, who is the ONE GUY who absolutely would make the decision to catch a bullpen without wearing a cup. If you can't guess Daiki, then I'm sorry, you're just not going to know whose balls are probably going to have to be removed (we can also probably assume that the sheer agony of taking a baseball to the nut-sack accounts for the e-mail's poor grammatical structure).

THEN we found out that we had to play the games in Sissach, since First League had a game scheduled (FIRST LEAGUE!!!) in Zurich. Finally, on my way to the Herrliberg-Feldmeilen train station on Saturday, I had the misfortune to come across to people humping eachother in the park...at 8 in the morning, in the rain, in Feldmeilen! I mean, we're trying to have a society here. So all in all, the omens were not good. There's not much to say about Game 1 except that we were atrocious in the field and at the plate. Oli Christen actually pitched great except for one mistake, but it's really hard to win when your team doesn't score any runs. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm not saying we couldn't do it. Just that's it's really hard.

The first five innings were a tense pitcher's duel. Over the first 3 innings, the Frogs managed to get two runners to second, but no further as Christen worked around a walk and an error with 3 strikeouts. The Sissach pitcher was even better, allowing only Juan de la Rosa's ground rule double to right over the first three innings. In the top of the fourth (the Challengers, bizarrely, were the home team in Game 1), Sissach got the lead-off man on by virtue of an infield hit. After a wild pick-off attempt by Christen got by Ryan Koley at first, the Frogs had a runner in scoring position with no outs. Two batters later, following a ground out and a Sac-Fly, the visitors had a 1-0 lead. The Challengers looked to come right back, as de la Rosa singled with one out and took second on a mis-handle by the left-fielder. After Falcone was caught looking for the second out, a wild pick-off attempt flew into center and allowed de la Rosa to take third. Unfortunately, once Juan gets going on the basepaths, only he knows where that journey will end. The throw from center to third was way over the third-baseman's head, which normally would mean that Juan could trot home. Unfortunately, the throw was NOT high enough to get over the chain-link fence that surrounds the left-field side of the field in Sissach, and the ball ricocheted right back to the Sissach fielder. This became even more unfortunate when, perhaps responding to Oli's shouts of Go Go Home Home! (and I'm sure there were others, but again, it's Juan and he doesn't really listen anyway), Juan did indeed try to score and was tagged out half way down the line. Inning over, still 1-0.

It remained that way until the top of the 6th, when the Challengers simply and utterly self-destructed. Christen struck out the lead-off batter, but the ball bounced away from catcher Yusuke Azuma, requiring a throw to first to record the out. However, Azuma's throw was well short of the bag and got by Koley, who didn't come off the base to procure the ball. Subsequently, the Frogs started a bunt parade that the C's simply couldn't handle: Both the 3 and 4 hitters laid down bunts that were mis-handled (the second was recorded as a single, but trust me, it was an error). Suddenly, the Frogs had the bases loaded without having hit a ball out of the infield.

And the Challengers still almost got out of it unscathed: Christen induced a grounder to Falcone and short, who threw low, but in time to force the runner at home. Oli then struck out the next batter, moving him one batter away from escaping the jam. Sadly, that batter crushed a 1-1 pitch over the left-field fence for a grand-slam and a 5-0 lead. The Frogs added two more runs off of Nick Lehmann in the 7th to account for the 7-0 final, but for all intents and purposes, the game was over on that one swing. The final line for the Challengers' offense: 0 runs, 2 hits. And one game away from elimination.

by Alex Gordon