Flyers take two from Eagles
Saturday May 20th was a perfectly typical Swiss Baseball day - cold and rainy. However, this did not stop the Flyers and Luzern Eagles from playing two games without even pausing to admire the beautiful drops of water falling from the sky. A special thanks also goes out to Philippe Kleiber for his game-ball sponsoring!
Game 1
Once again, the first game of the day pitted a pair of national team pitchers against each other, Hide Oshima for the Flyers and Stefan Haltmeier for the Eagles. Oshima had himself a 1-2-3 inning to start off the game and the Flyers jumped on Haltmeier right away in the bottom of the 1st for two quick runs. Adrian Kaufmann led off the game with a single, while the Flyers' Venezuelans David Castillo and Javier Rodriguez contributed an RBI single apiece. The score would stay the same with both pitchers cruising until the 3rd, when the Eagles took advantage of an error by the Flyers infield that extended the inning, allowing Tom Enz to tie the game on a two run double. Neither team would score again until the Flyers took the lead in the 7th on a double by Stefan Koller and a sac fly by Sven Leemann. One inning later, the Flyers finally broke through and gave themselves and reliever Koller some breathing room. A run scoring single from Castillo, an RBI double from Jeremy Schreiber and a triple by Rodriguez contributed 5 runs to the Flyers' total. Koller then collected the final three outs and put away the Flyers' 8-2 win.
Box Score
http://www.easyscore.com/data/box_Game4766_wtlhl5sfmdibl41x3uxdbfbb.pdf
Game 2
Fresh off their win, the Flyers didn't manage to keep up the intensity and came flat out of the gate. The Eagles took advantage to jump on Chris Horne for two runs in the 1st inning. The home team on the other hand couldn't figure out Eagles pitcher Veras, who got one Flyers hitter after another to pop up or weakly ground out. It wasn't until the 4th before the Flyers finally got something going. Koller doubled in the first run of the game, and was quickly followed by a two-RBI single by Sebastian Zwyer to give the Flyers the lead. In the 6th the Eagles tied it right back up on a solo home run to center field by Adam Greenberg. Horne would not allow another run after that, giving his offense time to wake up and give him another lead. Just as in the 1st game, the Flyers finally broke through late in the game. They would score four in the 7th and two in the 8th, the highlight being a big two-run double from Taka Oshima to put the game away. Oshima would also finish off the game on the mound, throwing a 1-2-3 inning to seal the 2nd win of the day. Thanks to the rally at the end of the game, the Flyers were able to get their young rookies in the game. Noah Senn took advantage by getting himself an infield single, while Sean Bergmann scored the first run of his NLA career.
Box Score
http://www.easyscore.com/data/box_Game4767_wtlhl5sfmdibl41x3uxdbfbb.pdf
The Flyers now take a five-game winning streak into a rematch with the Luzern Eagles on Sunday, May 28th in Luzern.