NLA Baseball - Two wins vs the Frogs
Last Sunday, the Flyers, riding an eleven-game winning streak, welcomed their local rivals, the Sissach Frogs to Therwil. The Flyers picked up another two wins, bringing their streak to thirteen straight. It was with a heavy heart that they said thank you and good-bye to Jeremy Schreiber and Chris Horne. Both contributed greatly to the winning streak, dominating on the mound and at (and behind) the plate. Schreiber hit .364 with 3 home runs and also throwing a no-hitter. Horne went 4-0 on the mound with a 2.25 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 40 innings pitched. He also managed to put up a .408 batting average, which doesn't really seem possible for a pitcher. All advanced metrics are provided by Swiss-Statscast. A special thanks also goes to Philippe Kleiber for his game-ball sponsoring.
Game 1
The game started off about as badly as possible for the Flyers. Frogs' lead-off hitter Taylor Eichhorst wasted no time smacking a monster home run to left field. At 495 feet, this was easily the longest home run of the season. With an exit velocity of 117.3mph, it took only two seconds for the ball to clear the fence. Flyers' pitcher Lukas Croton however managed to shake it off and retire the next three hitters in order. The score stayed 1-0 for the Frogs until the 3rd inning, when the Flyers finally managed to push across their first runs. Doubles by Adrian Kaufmann and the Oshima brothers quickly gave the home team a 3-1 lead. On the mound Croton was in cruise control, dominating the Frogs to the tune of 8 strikeouts while allowing only two more base-runners through five innings. In the 6th, Hide Oshima took over on the mound for the Flyers and picked up where Croton left off, flustering the Frogs hitters and only allowing two unearned runs during his outing. On the other side, the Flyers offense refused to keep quiet. They continued to tack on one run after another, led by Kaufmann and Taka Oshima. Kaufmann, the table-setter for the offense, was 3-4 with a double, while continuing to add to his league-leading stolen base and runs-scored totals. Oshima, hitting in the clean-up spot for the first time this season, continued his torrid hitting of the last few weeks by going 4-5 with three doubles and six RBIs. In the 7th inning, a Stefan Koller triple and a Jeremy Schreiber double combined to give the Flyers a mercy-rule walk-off win.
Box Score
http://www.easyscore.com/data/box_Game4625_cyzcxzegvw5yc0zeaayt5vkr.pdf
Game 2
Unsurprisingly, the 2nd game of the day started off much better for the Flyers. Aussie Chris Horne was successful in not giving up a lead-off home run. He continued the tradition of Flyers' pitching dominance, keeping the Frogs off-balance and off the board, giving his offense time to get to Frogs lefty Clinton Perez. The boys in blue grabbed their lead in the 2nd. A broken-bat single by Koller started off the inning and he would come around to score on an error. Handed a 1-0 lead, Horne was in his element on the mound, making very clear he would not need any more run support in his final start in Switzerland. Still, the Flyers did not take their foot off the gas pedal. Two innings later, in the 4th, they broke the game open, leaving no doubt as to the outcome. Led by David Castillo, who doubled and tripled in the same inning, and by Koller, who picked up his 2nd broken bat single of the day, the Flyers put up 7 runs in a heart-beat. As in the first game, they also continued to add more runs each inning to bring the score to 12-0. The offense in this game was led by Castillo, Taka Oshima and Sven Leemann who each had two hits apiece, while Koller added three of his own. On the other hand, the 1, 2 and 7 hitters didn't have their best days. Since Kaufmann had gotten multiple hits in game 1, Hide Oshima declared he would always do exactly what Kaufmann did in his at bats in the 2nd game; Schreiber, wanting in on the action, decided to copy Oshima: bound by their promises, they combined to go 0-12 with nine strikeouts. With his frustrations beginning to show, Oshima even forgot what position he was playing, trying to play first base with his pitching glove. With the Flyers leading by over ten runs, the 2nd game of the day also ended due to mercy-rule in the 7th inning.
Box Score
http://www.easyscore.com/data/box_Game4626_cyzcxzegvw5yc0zeaayt5vkr.pdf
After a two week break due to the European Championships in Serbia, the Flyers are back in action on August 5th in Zürich versus the Challengers.