Stefan Haltmeier

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 172 lb.

• Born October 24, 1982 in Lucerne, Lucerne Switzerland

Biographical Information

Stefan Haltmeier has pitched for the Swiss national team.

His early career stats are unclear. He was with the Lucerne Eagles in 2011 and 2017. He was with Switzerland for the 2017 B-Level European Championship, going the distance with a three-hitter, allowing one unearned run to beat Greece and Andy Orfanakos; Greece had played in several European Championships to that point while Switzerland had never made one yet, so it was a fine upset. He tied Alon Leichman for the event lead in ERA, led in opponent average (.100, .067 ahead of Lukas Croton) and tied Jonathan Kountis for 5th in IP.

Haltmeier joined the Zürich Challengers in 2018. He helped them to their first title in 14 years, setting franchise records for starts (20) and IP (113 2/3) and tying Thomas Landis's record for wins (12); he was two shy of Severin Fries' Ligue Nationale A record for victories. He was 12-1 with a 3.96 ERA and won Pitcher of the Year.

In the 2019 CEB Cup, he was 0-2 with a 19.80 ERA for the Challengers, losing to Minsk's Yauheni Kurhun and Livian Delgado of the Astros Valencia. He tied Jonathan Mottay for the loss lead, tied Simon Steffen for the most earned runs allowed (11) and tied for second in runs allowed. He was 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in the 2019 B-Level European Championship; he beat Timo Lirii and Finland. Had he qualified, he would've been 4th in ERA behind Mateusz Szustek, Edvardas Matusevičius and Jakub Ižold. That summer in Switzerland, he was 5-4 with a 6.33 ERA.

During 2020, he went 4-3 with a save and a 3.94 ERA for Zurich, winning Best Pitcher. Moving to the Hünenberg Unicorns, he had a 2-3, 5.33 record in 2021. He returned to the Challengers the next year, going 7-2 with a 5.18 ERA. Now 40 years old, he was by no means done. He was 3-3 with 3 saves and a 3.19 ERA in '23, winning Best Pitcher once more.

Switzerland made their first European Championship in 2023. Though he was 42 years old, he was not their oldest player as both Saentis Zeller and James Sanders were older. He made one start, versus Germany. He started slowly as Eric Brenk tripled and Vincent Ahrens went deep. He recovered to strike out Shawn Larry then retire Simon Bäumer and Yannic Walther. Cee-Jay Savoldelli took over in the second as Switzerland wound up using ten hurlers that day. He took the loss to Simon Groß.