South Oakland lost 11-7 and 5-2 on Sunday. The Ducks are now in second place, falling a one game behind North America, and a half game ahead of the WOLFPACK!!!
The Ducks blew a 6-1 lead in game one, and a 2-1 lead in game 2.
North America scored six unearned runs in the fourth inning of game one, and three unearned in the fifth inning of game 2.
We’ll get ’em in the playoffs.
quack.
Nature artist’s realistic recreation of what a duck vs. lion matchup would look like in the wild.
Tonight’s Ducks/Monsters game was cancelled due to unplayable field conditions.
South Oakland plays next on Sunday vs. North America, 11AM at Munhall Recreational Park.
Big double header this weekend. We will probably practice on Saturday somewhere.
Management is working on finding a time slot to reschedule the rain out, and the Senators rain out from last week.
quack
Assume we’re playing unless you hear otherwise. Hopefully this rain clears and it dries out by 8 tonight.
Your first place South Okland Ducks have won six straight, and look to take the season series from the Monsters tonight in Springview. The last time the teams met was a harrowing 11-10 Ducks win. Hopefully we can find someone to throw strikes tonight. Key to our success this year have been solid defense and strike throwing from our staff. Hopefully this continues and we can go into the weekend a full game ahead of the Lions who are 13-4.
Tonight’s game is huge. A first round buy is key, but if we hold on to the one seed it would allow us to avoid the Lions/WOLFPACK!!! until the finals.
Iceberg will give us some innings tonight.
Bad News for the Monsters
South Oakland won on a walk-off fielder’s choice by Matt Limbach for their second come from behind win in as many days. Matt Swetz and Tony Casale (w, 1-0) Combined to hold the Warriors to 2 runs over the final six innings.
The Warriors trailed 1-0 after one, but exploded for five runs in the second off an four walks, and infield hit, a double and an error. Some guy stole home. South Oakland appeared ready to melt down.
The Ducks scored in the bottom half of the inning when Hartranft hit a hustling double to right, advanced to third on Donnie’s sac bunt, and scored on Moore’s single. Moore finished 1-for-4 with an RBI
Warriors 5, Ducks 2 after two.
Swetz entered the game and worked out of trouble for 2 2/3 innings allowing one run and keeping the Ducks within striking distance.
Limbach and Swetz drove in runs in the fifth for South Oakland
6-4 Warriors after five
The Ducks went down in order in the sixth, and the Warriors added a run in the top of the seventh to take a 7-4 lead on Craig Boley’s laser beam of an RBI single to right center.
To start the Ducks half of the seventh, Casale reached on an error, Gwin walked, and Limbach reached on another error. Matt Swetz then singled to right and drove in three when the right fielder’s throw went over the backstop.
7-7 after seven.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, Casale doubled, Gwin was intentionally walked, and Limbach hit a hard grounder in the hole between second and third. The Warriors second baseman couldn’t handle the throw to second from the short stop. Casale came around to score and end the game. 8-7 Ducks.
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The Ducks are 4-2 in one-run games this season.
We’ve won a handful of games where we’ve been down or tied after the fourth, if someone wants to count the number of come from behind wins we’ve had this season, I’d appreciate it.
Apparently you can just put a guy on without throwing the pitches for an intentional walk. Several times, Boley called for intentional walks, and basically went with the same strategy Ducks management tried to implement in the ill-fated, botched intentional walk game earlier this season. It’s the right move. However they didn’t go with five infielders, which would’ve been awesome, theoretically, for someone.
South Oakland returns to the Duck Pond to face the Monsters, 8pm Wednesday night. Who wants to pitch?
This will be our first game at this field. We are the home team. 6pm starts are the worst.
Bad News for the Warriors
Titans Recap:
South Oakland defeated the Titans in a come-from-behind 7-6 victory yesterday in Bellevue. The win keeps South Oakland tied for first with North America, and a full game ahead of the WOLFPACK!!!
After a frantic start by the Titans who took advantage of a few questionable calls by the umps and some missed opportunities by the Ducks, South Oakland settled in and scored a bunch of runs to erase deficits of 2-0, and 4-1. The Ducks lead 6-4 after 5 but the Titans tied it in the 6th before the Ducks scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 7th on Ciccone’s RBI double.
Doubles were hit by Casale, Ciccone and Gwin. Hartranft had a sweet single to start a big inning in the 5th, and Mike Brandt walked twice to bring his OBP up to .453.
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I’m really glad we won and I’m not here trying not to blame the umpires that we lost. This was the first time I’ve tried to file a complaint with the league office about the umps. They were admittedly out of position, and generally didn’t give a shit. Which is a shame because the Titans played us tough, again, and I don’t want to take anything away from their effort in what was a good game.
This is what I found when I tried to log in to the umpire association’s page today to file a complaint:
Looks about right.
The Ducks have won five straight games.
South Oakland plays tonight and Wednsday before traveling to Munhall for a double header against North America with first place on the line this Sunday.
Who wants to see if they can pitch?
quack
ESPECIALLY, fundamentally sound baseball squads. Better call Ciccone! Anthony Ciccone & Associates.
Our mascot the little yellow duck wanted to celebrate our come from behind victory with a blegian blonde ale.
Here’s to you ducks!!!!
#QUACK
Rob “Iceberg” Galvanek pitched a scoreless 7th inning and went 1-for-3 with 2RBI as the Ducks beat the Warriors 14-2 in Etna last Wednesday.
Brian Strom pitched the first two innings on short rest while our attorney was stuck in traffic.
No word how much Warriors management may or may not have paid Ciccone to get stuck in traffic and arrive in the second inning.
Ciccone played an inning at first base, which means he has played all nine positions for South Oakland this year. Then he pitched four innings of one run baseball to earn the win.
This was a solid team win for the Ducks. South Oakland has won 5 straight and is now in first place with a record of 11-3.
The Warriors (2-8) are having a tough season. Newman had a sweet game for them, and Boley played well behind the plate.
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Notes:
Starting with our game on Sunday, South Oakland plays three games in four days (five in seven), and we still have a make-up game against the Senators to reschedule.
Who wants to pitch?
It looks like there’s going to be a three team race between the Ducks (11-3), North America (11-4), and the WOLFPACK!!! (9-4) for the top 2 seeds and the ever-important first round bye in the playoffs. It should be an exciting pennant race. We have a big double header against North America next weekend, and one game left against the WOLFPACK!!!
It was the former head coach of the Matadors, who is no longer in the league, that tried to bribe teams to throw games. For more on bribery, see the previous post.
South Oakland’s next game is this Sunday, 3:30pm vs. the Titans.
quack
South Oakland looks to extend its winning streak to four games today in Etna.
Ciccone will start on the mound.
Bad News for the Warriors
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 