South Oakland overcame an early 2-0 deficit to beat the South Side Eagles 6-2, Tuesday night in Ross Township. Ty Hronek pitched 6.2 innings, striking out 9, while allowing 3 hits and 0 walks. Anthony Defilippo put the game out of reach with a 3-run double in the sixth. Defilippo leads the league with 10 doubles.
Pittsburgh D2 first baseman, Ken Ames hit a walk-off 2-run double last night in Elliot. D2 scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh. The Ducks fell to 7-9 with the loss.
With a chance to get back to .500 and stay on the periphery of the division race this was a tough loss to a good team.
Jake Dockum and Tony Casale both hit doubles.
South Oakland is 4-4 in one-run games this season.
South Oakland has won two of its last three games.
June 2, John Herb Field, Ross Twp.: The Ducks came from behind to defeat D2 5-4 in eight innings. Aiden Alessio singled home a run in the sixth to tie the game at 4. Ben Gwin singled home the winning run with two outs in the 8th inning.
Ryan Myers pitched 5 strong innings before giving way to the bullpen. Stephen Murray and Brandon Blackstone pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief. Anthony DeFilippo hit two doubles.
June 9, John Herb Field, Ross Twp.: South Oakland beat the Eagles 13-8 in a classic NABA game between two legacy teams with wild bird mascots. After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Ducks exploded for 10 runs in the bottom of the second, chasing the Eagles starter.
The Eagles screetched back within 2 runs behind two doubles, a handful of errors, and a ball that hit second base and bounced into right field. The lead felt tenuous at 10-8.
South Oakland answered with three big insurance runs in the bottom of the 4th, and the game settled down after that.
Ducks stats of note:
Tom Pulice 2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI
Aiden Alessio: 2-for-4, 3B, 4 RBI
Ty Hronek: W, 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 6 K
South Oakland plays next on Sunday, June 14, at 8:15pm at John Herb Field vs the Turtles.
South Oakland lost 6-5 to Bakery Square last Tuesday night, in a game neither team seemed to want to win. Ducks pitchers combined to walk eleven batters. The Bandidos scored the go-ahead run on a bases loaded error in the top of the seventh. Eric Friend had a bases loaded triple and 2 HBP for Bakery Square.
South Oakland came up short against the Bandidos again on Sunday morning, losing the early morning affair 9-6. The Bandidos scored 6 runs in the bottom of the fifth to put the game out of reach. Tom Pulice, Anthony Defilippo, and Tony Casale hit doubles for South Oakland.
South Oakland (3-5) mercy-ruled the Turtles 14-4 and beat the Devils 3-2 this week. In between those games was a 1-0 loss to the Oakmont Lions that was played in the rain, at dusk, without lights. During the rain game, the Ducks lost a player to injury due to poor conditions. The Devils game was moved at the last minute to a field an hour away.
Pitching and defense have been much improved since an 0-4 start. Management is still figuring out where everyone fits, but the mix of young guys and veterans has potential. Overall, the team is playing much better.
South Oakland plays next at 8:15 on Tuesday night at John Herb Field vs. the Bandidos (4-2).
The South Oakland Ducks (1-4) battled back to beat the Bakery Square Bandidos (3-2) by a score of 9-8 at Mellon Park Sunday Morning.
Tom Pulice drove in the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh with a two-out, two-run single. In the bottom half of the frame, Ty Hronec struck out two batters, working around a leadoff double and an error to record the save (1).
The Ducks scored four runs in the top of the fourth to take an 7-4 lead. The Bandidos answered in the bottom of the sixth with four runs before South Oakland took the lead for good on Pulice’s RBI single in the seventh.
Ryan Myers (W, 1-1) scattered nine hits over six innings for the win.
The Ducks lost 15-3 when the two teams met earlier in the season.
Ducks stats of note:
Aiden Alessio : 0-2, BB, 2 HBP, RBI, R
Ty Hronec: 2-for-2, 2 2B, 2 BB, 2R; 1 IP, 2 K, S
South Oakland plays next on Tuesday night, 8:15 at John Herb Field vs the Turtles
South Oakland sits at 2-2 after defeating pre-season favorite Keystone Oaks 13-5 in a rain-shortened game last Tuesday night at John Herb Field. Brandon Blackstone (W, 1-0) pitched 4.2 innings for the win. Cody Quinn recorded the final out in the top of the fifth.
TJ Morgan, Tom Pulice, Anthony DeFillipo, and Ryan Myers all had multiple hits for the Ducks.
The game was rained out after five full innings, and started late after a scheduling miscue with the umpires. Keystone Oaks dropped to 3-2 with the loss.
The Ducks next game is Tuesday night at John Herb Field.
This year was a tough one for the Ducks. Another year where the Front office and the team on the field resembled each other, with losses, and stresses. Over the last two years, our hitting and pitching has not matched up game to game like we need. I think we are moving in the right direction though. For the first time, I feel like in years we had our impact players playing more than three quarters of the games on our schedule, and with our teams median age of like 103, I’ll take it.
This year we ended at 12-11-1, but with our move to John Herb Field, it felt like we ended a lot better than our record says. I could be wrong, but I do not think we lost a game once we made the move. I know there are some of us that are truly going to miss Spring Hill, myself being one of them. It was shit hole, but it was our shit hole. It’s a bummer that its gone, but hopefully the city does right by the Urban Impact kids and makes it usable for ages up to Pony and Colt.
I would argue that we have the best arm in the division on our roster, and at least the best arm that didn’t play in a league or NCAA division that shouldn’t have been in our division in the first place. Our pitching staff dealt with a lot of injuries this year. We lost Casen to an elbow, Christian to his oblique, Josh to his shoulder, and Cups had some elbow issues that had him on the sidelines for awhile as well. Even our last game of the year, Billy was battling through some back pain in hopes of getting us to the Semi-Finals. If we do not have injuries, I think we are giving the top teams a run for their money. With some question marks going into next year. I think one or two more arms puts us near the top.
Our lineup is dirty. I have no other way to describe it to you, than good luck. We have been shut down by some arms through the league, but if I had to guess, everyone has to think about who to pitch to when it comes time to pay the Ducks. From top to bottom, I take us every single time. Flip once again had a great year, Kenny soared, I hit well, Dave, our new leadoff/CF was in the fight to be the offensive player of the year for us, and even guys towards the bottom of our lineup were doing their thing. Brandt led the 6-10 slot hitters with 11 RBI, and overall, the bottom and top of our lineup attributed for nearly equal RBI numbers (74-72.) The parity of our lineup is unmatched.
Finally, our year end awards. We had so many guys with great seasons its tough to pick. I had to do a calculation, I ran 1 point for Top five, 2 points for Top Three and 3 Points for Top of a category.
For Pitcher of the year, I used the following categories: (GP, GS, CG, SHO, W, SV, SVO, IP, BF, K’s, WHIP, OBA, and ERA)
#
Player
Top 5
Top 3
1st
Total
10
Billy Welsh
11
11
11
66
27
Brandon Blackstone
11
9
1
32
15
Ryan Myers
6
6
2
24
6
Colin Dougherty
6
4
–
14
9
Casen Wolinsky
8
5
–
18
For Offensive Player of the year, I ran the following categories with a Min of 50 Plate appearances: GP, RS, H, 2B, 3B, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS.
#
Player
Top 5
Top 3
1st
Total
46
Anthony Defilippo
9
9
5
42
18
David Williams
10
8
3
35
24
Kenny Rayl
10
8
1
29
33
Tom Pulice
7
4
3
24
29
Mark Lombardi
7
2
0
11
Since we didn’t truly have many Ducks Rookies this year, its easier to decide, but at the end of the day, its still would have been the same guy. David locked down CF and the leadoff spot for us, while hitting one of our two homeruns this year.
We have some work to do next year. Limping into the playoffs in the middle of the pack hasn’t paid off for us. With the roster we have I honestly think we are one or two pieces away from being a true powerhouse.
RIP to Springhill, and to the Oakland Coliseum, both iconic stadiums for teams wearing the green and gold. Pour one out for them next time you have the chance. Until next year. Quack.
The Ducks open the 2024 playoffs at home vs the one-win Marlins.
Big missed opportunity by Sheraden by not going with the Jeff Conine-era unis.
Those are sharp.
I’m gonna have a longer post about ringers and cheating after the season. I tried to work it in here, but it was long. I’ll post it mid-week so people can kill time at work reading it.
I don’t think there’s a ton to say about this game. We didn’t get out of the play-in round, and this bracket is terrible, so here we are. We should win, but we can’t take them lightly, etc.
What hurt us this year were injuries to three or four pitchers who we were counting on to make significant contributions.
I think we can still make a deep playoff run if we get some bounces.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 