Tag Archives: South Oakland

Ducks Win: South Oakland 4, Cranberry 3

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks WIn, pittsburgh NABA and tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ducks pitcher Robert Patton (2-0) earned his second straight victory, allowing 1 ER over five innings, to lead South Oakland of the North Side (5-1, 6-5-2) past Cranberry (1-3, 4-8) Saturday afternoon.

Cranberry scored a run early with a two out rally in the bottom of the first on a walk and two singles. South Oakland took the lead in the third when with two out, Guthrie singled, Ken Cool was hit by a pitch, and a past ball moved the runners to second and third. Gwin singled in Ken Cool and Guthrie to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.

In the fifth, South Oakland scored two more runs on an  almost identical series of events. Guthrie walked with two outs. Ken Cool singled and Guthrie advance to third. Ken Cool stole second and Gwin singled in Guthrie and Ken Cool to put the Ducks up 4-1.

Cranberry made it interesting with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth, the inning ended when Fago threw out a guy trying to steal second.

In the sixth, with runners on first and second and no body out, Ducks first baseman Bobby Swartwout threw out a Cranberry runner at third on a botched sacrifice attempt, then made a nice over the shoulder catch on a pop-up and doubled off the guy at first to end the inning.

Cranberry stranded runners on second and third to end the game.

Ducks outfielder TJ Morgan went 3-for-3 on the day.

***

Earlier in the year we were letting leads slip away into ties, and ridiculous 11-10 losses. It’s good to hold on and win tight games.

Yesterday the Black Sox dropped both games to Clinton, and fell to 0-4 in the division, with another game against the 3-1 Cherokee today at 3pm.

With the Black Sox at 0-4, and Cranberry at 1-3 and those two teams still facing each other three more times, we’ve almost clinched a playoff spot.

I’m really surprised to see Kenny Powers and Brookline in last place.

South Oakland plays Elliot Monday night at 9pm before a huge game against the Cherokee Wednesday night at home with first place on the line.

quackquackquack.

Ducks Win:

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks WIn, South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

South Oakland 6, Cranberry 1

Bobby Swartwout (sp) drove in three runs, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single off the wall to lead South Oakland (4-1, 5-5-2) past Cranberry Wednesday night. Ducks pitcher James Fago allowed one unearned run over six innings, holding Cranberry to 3 hits and recording an estimated 9 Ks. I have now gone from spelling out numbers to writing them as numerals.

Cranberry scored their run early on a walk, a hit batter, a past ball and an error in some order.

The Ducks tied the game in the third when Ken Cool doubled and scored from second on an infield hit by Gwin who reached third on a double by our new utility infielder. Fago walked and scored on Swartwout’s bases clearing double.

South Oakland added another run on a sac fly by centerfielder TJ Morgan.

I don’t know where we’d be without Morgan this season, and I’m at a complete loss as to how we scored our other run. I think a groundout.

Robert Patton pitched a perfect seventh to preserve the victory.

There are still players on our team who haven’t met each other. There are at least four guys whose names i don’t know, and may never know, but after a brutal start that included a 17 – 1 loss to the Bulldogs, we’re playing better baseball.

We have another important division game against Cranberry Saturday 2pm, at North Boundary Park.

Quack.

Happy Memorial Day: Practice Tuesday, 6:30 at SpringView Field

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

It looks like the league this year is incredibly balanced. That, combined with the meaninglessness of the non-division games, has lead to a lot of decent but not spectacular records.

Cranberry beat the Black Sox last weekend making our division race much tighter, and the games this week even more important.

The Cherokee play the Black Sox in what looks like a home and home double header on Saturday 3:30 in the twilight zone and 9pm at Moore Park. Wild scheduling – Kenny Powers does not want to fall to 0 – 4 in divisional play, and Ken Cool’s brother definitely wants the Cherokee to bury Brookline. I guess it’s in our best interest to root for a split there. I don’t know.

There will be intense baseball down the stretch for sure.

Thank god we won’t have to go back to Findlay in the regular season. The field is fine, but the lack of shade makes me dizzy thinking about it.

Two Big games this week vs Cranberry: Wed, 9pm at SpringView, and Saturday, 2pm at North Boundary Park. We’ve got a chance to get over .500 overall and go to 5 -1 in the division.

quack.

Game Day 10&11: Ducks at Cherokee

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-0, 3-4-3)

at

Clinton Cherokee (0-0, 5-2)

1pm and 3:30pm

Middle of Nowhere (seriously, according to this yahoo maps link, we’re playing in a parallel dimension)

In this alternate universe, all teams want pictures like this taken of their summer league teams.

They look like they mean business – and check out the sick piping!

This is probably just some art students school project, but whatever.

If Ken Cool’s brother had stuck around we might have Ducks pics like this: I’d want a silhouette  of Guth holding up that cigar on top of the Cool’s picnic table right before he blacked out and fell on the driveway after we won the championship, imposed in front of Dan Marino field in Oakland with a drug deal taking place in the background and some little kids playing with a broken 40 bottle.

Sadly, me and Fago’s inability to provide our team with posters of ourselves led to the loss of some quality players.

Our pitching situation is gonna be touch and go, but we should have most of our lineup.

Bad News for the Cherokee.

Ducks Win

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , ,

South Oakland 6, Brookline 3

We’re all part of the tribe.

Ducks pitcher James Fago went seven innings, allowing 3 hits, and 2ER, while striking out several and walking few.

The Ducks scored 2 in the top of the first on  TJ Morgan’s bases loaded infield single. On the play Black Sox third baseman Kenny Powers made a spectacular barehanded catch on a well-placed roller down the line but could not throw out the hustling Morgan. Gwin scored from second on the play also hustling.

Brookline answered in the top of the third when with two outs their two hitter fouled off a pitch that hit his hand, then after he struck out swinging, Ducks catcher, Ben Gwin, misplayed the pitch in the dirt and hit the kid in the hand again with his throw to first. He would later score on a ball up the middle, on the play, however, Ducks second baseman Ken Cool hit the kid in the back.

Later in the inning, Kenny Powers scored after he stole second but was nearly thrown out.  Ball beat him there, but he slid around the tag.

Fago handled himself with composure and calmness in the dugout after the Ducks allowed 2 unearned runs in the inning. It was as if it didn’t phase him.

The game remained tied.

We caught the second baseman in a rundown between third and home in the top of the fourth when we executed the first and third play we’ve been working on all season. He was out.

To end the top of the fifth, Kenny Powers was thrown out at home at one point trying to tag on a shallow fly to center.

in the bottom of the inning  Brian Strom recorded his first hit as a Duck, after we saved the ball for enshrinement on his mantle, Strom  stole second and advanced to third on a groundout by Gwin. Strom scored on a Fago single.

The Sox starter was pissed. He was pulled for another lefty.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Ducks scored three runs on a walk, 2 bunt singles another infield hit and a linedrive to right by Ken Cool’s friend Brian.

The Sox scored a run in the top of the seventh, on a double by Florian and a single by their really intense catcher.

Fago struck out Goldie swinging to end the game.

***

South Oakland is 2 – 0 in division play heading into their Saturday double header against Ken Cool’s brother’s team.

We are in first place.

quack, quack.

GameDay 9: Ducks vs Black Sox

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , ,

Ducks vs Black Sox

9pm

SpringView Field

 

Trying to write any more about this rivalry makes me want to puke. It’s all redundant at this point. Brookline is always tough. Somehow, we always seem to absorb players from teams who have a history of fighting (whether in the stands on the field or whatever) during games against those guys. The Hurricanes beat the Sox to win the ’09 title, after the Sox beat the Owlz in the semis. We beat the Sox to win the ’10 championship. I think they’ve got some big time pitching this year. Our field is so slanted towards first base after all that rain, it’s  a joke. I wonder what the all time Sox-Ducks series is at. I think Kenny and I are the only two players who’ve been around for all those games.

We’ve got to keep our momentum going within the division. We’ve already allowed more runs than we did all of last season. We need to reverse this trend. Defense and pitching need to be more consistent. If so, we can play with anybody.

Bad News for the Black Sox

Ducks Win

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, pittsburgh NABA and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

South Oakland 7, Cranberry 3

Paul Emig (1-o-1) earned his first win as a Duck since 2007, allowing 2 runs over 4 innings, to help South Oakland (1-0, 2-4-2) open divisional play with a  7 – 3 win over Cranberry (0-1, 2-5).

Trailing 2-0 in the top of the fifth, Fetter led off the inning with a double, followed by four singles by Roberts, Emig, Ken Cool, and Gwin to put South Oakland up 3-2. With two out in the inning, Swartwout doubled in Ken Cool to give the Ducks a 4-2 lead.

In the Sixth Fetter singled to lead off the inning, and advanced to third on a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice (not sure in which order, the book is a mess). Fetter would score on an overthrow back to the pitcher.

In the seventh, Ken Cool and Gwin hit back to back singles to start the inning,  Ken Cool scored on Swartwout’s second double of the game, Gwin scored on an rbi groundout by Houseman.

In the bottom of the 6th, TJ Morgan and Houseman teamed up to throw a guy out at third attempting to stretch a double into a triple.

Fetter may have picked up a three-inning save, allowing 1 unearned run in relief. Not sure if that’s possible.

We really needed this one.

South Oakland will face the Black Sox wed night, 9pm at SpringView Field.

Quack

Ducks and the Sopranos

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

I started  watching the Sopranos from the beginning a while back, and i’m on the second to last episode.

The Ducks did so much to add sympathy initially to Tony’s character. Very well done.

South Oakland opens division play at Cranberry, Sunday, 2pm.

quack

Game Time Change

Posted by mightyeskimo in 2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball and tagged with , , , , ,

Ducks at Express has been moved to 8pm Sunday.

How we respond in this game is going to dictate in a big way how the rest of our season goes. This is as important as a non-division game can be this early in the season.

The Express are tough this year. They played our friends in Imperial real close.

We’ve added some new players who will be there on Sunday night.

We’re either going to battle out of this, make the playoffs and have a run at the title, or we’re going to finish like 5 – 17-2, and most of us will never see each other again.

Quack.