Eagles 14, Challengers 10

Game 2 started out well: After Azuma got through the top of the first, the Challengers hung up a 3 spot in the bottom of the inning: Sarmiento singled, stole second, and then scored on de la Rosa's double. After a wild pitch and a ground-out by Lehmann, Daiki Sato, making his season debut in this set of games, knocked in Juan with a single of his own. That brought Gordon to the plate, who, having been plunked twice the last game, was starting to wonder whether it was worth the trouble to keep bringing his bat to the plate (for now, yes). After Sato stole second, Gordon laced a single down the left field line, scoring Daiki for a 3-0 lead (it probably should have been a double, but I think I was so surprised that I'd actually managed to hit the ball out of the infield that I spent a little too much time watching instead of running). Gordon subsequently stole second, but Greggy Zingg flew out softly to the pitcher to end the inning.

The Eagles got 2 back in the top of the second, thanks in large part to Challenger mistakes. With two outs, Luzern had runners on 2nd and 3rd when Azuma induced a sharp grounder back to the mound. The ball hit off Yusuke's glove and rolled a short way towards the third base line, where Azuma snagged it and threw to first. Unfortunately, the throw was wild and went flying into foul territory, allowing two runs to score. Arguably, Ryan Koley should've come off the base to ensure that the ball stayed in play, but regardless the throw was inarguably poor.

In the bottom of the inning, Koley led off with a single, and was "bunted over" to second on a "sac bunt" by Michel Romang. Why the quotation marks? Well because the ball that Michel "bunted" first landed behind the plate before bouncing up and striking him in the chest while he was still in the batter's box. Dead ball, right? Not according to the blundering umpiring duo from Embrach. I can understand how the plate umpire missed it, he was blocked. How the field umpire blew it will remain a mystery. Nonetheless, Azuma followed with a single and then stole second, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. After Sarmiento struck out, de la Rosa drove in both runners with a single, making is 4-2 Challengers. After Lehmann walked and de la Rosa stole third, Sato drove in Juan for the second time in 2 innings with a single, sending Lehmann to second. Gordon drew a walk to load the bases with two outs, but Zingg grounded out to the pitcher to retire the side (according to the Challengers' dugout, at the time he received the ball from the pitcher, the first baseman's foot was noticeably away from the base. So that's two blown calls by the field umpire, for those of you scoring at home). The Challengers added to their lead in the bottom of the third. Romang reached on an infield single (apparently he completely missed first base, but it only counts as a bad call when it goes against us!), stole second, and ultimately scored when Sarmiento reached on a 2-out error.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Challengers looked to have put the game out of reach. Following back to back singles by Lehmann and Sato, Gordon was drilled for a third time (this one actually hurt...right above the left elbow...my pinkie went numb!), leading the Luzern first baseman to ask "man, how many times have you been hit today?" (3, once by you, thanks for asking). Zingg followed with a grounder that scored Lehmann, but forced Daiki at third. Following a wild pitch, the Challengers had runners at second and third with only one out, but neither Koley nor Romang could get the runners in. Nonetheless, it was 8-2 Challengers, and things were looking pretty good.

In the top of the 5th inning, things began to take an ominous turn. After Azuma plunked back to back batters, Rüdisühli, who had replaced Zingg in RF, misplayed an easy fly, allowing a run to score, and giving the Eagles runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. A great play by Lehmann on a bunt play allowed the Challengers to cut down the lead runner at third, but the next batter singled, bringing in the second run of the inning (Rüdisühli managed to redeem himself somewhat by making a strong throw to the cut-off to help nail a runner trying to advance to third). While the Challengers still led 8-4, it was a bit disconcerting that the Eagles had essentially been gifted all 4 of their runs.

As bad as the last inning had been, the 6th inning was far worse. Despite having more or less cruised through 5 innings (errors excepted), Azuma was inexplicably replaced by Lehmann to start the inning. The pitching change, already questionable at the time it was made, proved disastrous as the normally steady Lehmann simply could not find the strike zone. While Nick was uncharacteristically shaky, he was let down by his defense at a crucial point. With a run in, the bases loaded and one out, Lehmann coaxed a grounder to Sarmiento at short, who - failing to notice that he had an easy force at third - threw late to first and the runner was safe. Nick came back to strike out the next batter, but what should have been the third out of the inning was only the second - and the last one Lehmann would record. By the time Zingg finally got around to pulling his ineffective reliever, 3 more runs scored and it was 12-8 Luzern. Sarmiento came on and retired the last batter on two pitches, but the damage was done. It was awful to watch: 8 runs in one inning to a team that hadn't managed a legit run on its own all day. The Eagles pushed across two more runs in the top of the 7th, to extend their lead to 14-8.

The Challengers tried to come back in the bottom of the 7th, but were once again undermined by their own inexplicably bad decision-making. Sarmiento led off with a single, then stole second. So far so good. He was then picked off trying to steal third. With no one out. Down four runs in the last inning. Not good. The base-running gaffe loomed even larger when the Challengers loaded the bases on two walks and an error. But after Gordon got jammed and flew out weakly to third (damn it!!!), the C's were down to their last out. Two runs did score on a HBP and a wild pitch, but the game ended when Koley's short fly was caught by the center-fielder (who was basically standing on the infield dirt...otherwise two more runs probably would've scored).

So after the first two sets of games the Challengers find themselves firmly at the bottom of their own division, tied with the Eagles at 1-3, and behind both Thun and Jona (both 2-0). Yes, the team was without de la Rosa for the first two games and Kovac for the next two, but the fact remains that at least 2 (and probably all 3) of those losses were gift-wrapped to the opposition by the C's. The team has a few weeks to practice up and prepare for its next set of games. Hopefully that time will be used wisely.

by Alex Gordon