Month: June 2016

Ducks Win 3-2. Umps Not Terrific.

2016 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland of the North Side defeated the Carrick Express 3-2 in a bizarrely officiated game, Saturday night in Carrick. DiPiaola (W, 4-1) threw his first complete game of the season for the victory. He struck out the last batter of the game. Brian Grundle pitched well for Carrick in the loss, also going seven innings and generally keeping the Ducks off balance.

The Ducks (9-7) scored three runs in the first and held Carrick (6-8) to two runs over the final six inning to hold on for the win.

We made key defensive plays to cut down the tying run at the plate on a chopper to the pitcher, and turned a double play to end a threat in the third. So far, we’ve won more close games than we’ve lost this season, which is the sign of a good team.

There were bad calls against both teams in this game, which is a shame because it was a well played and well pitched game that could have gone either way. The plate ump forgot the count and missed a fair/foul call on a potential double that went against the Ducks, and made a few bad calls on pitches against the Express. It probably evened out, but who knows. You can’t fix one call and then replay everything in a vacuum. The space time continuum would collapse on itself.

Doc_Brown

The Ducks play next on Tuesday night 6:45 at Mellon Park vs. the Oilers.

Rain Out

2016 South Oakland Ducks

This is the second time in Ducks history, we’ve had a rain out that I couldn’t call off in time to avoid ump fees. Really thought the rain was gonna miss us. Fifteen minute downpour and it was all she wrote. We now have 2 games vs. the Express to reschedule.

ducks rainout

South Oakland’s next game is Saturday, 8:00PM against the Express at Volunteer Field in Carrick.

quack

 

Gameday 16: Ducks Vs. Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (8-7)

vs.

Carrick Express (6-7)

9pm

Springview Field

Big game tonight as the Ducks try to gain ground on the WOLFPACK and keep pace with BIG OIL and a resurgent Eagles team.

The standings are tighter than traffic on Sawmill Run Blvd.

A win puts us in a tie for second with the Oilers, and a loss drops us back into a three-way tie for fourth with the Express and Rebels, both of whom would have games in-hand.

We beat Carrick earlier this season on an Andy Nichols walk-off single. Figures to be another close one tonight.

KellyLeak_cig

  Bad News for the Express

Depleted Ducks Split Double Header With Cranberry

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland (8-7) won game one 3-2 over Cranberry (5-8-1) behind a complete game victory by pitcher Chuck Zuzak and timely hitting and defense. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Ducks utility player, Joe Graff doubled in two runs, and Chartier drove in another. Gwin was hit by a pitch in the fifth, increasing his team leading HBP count to 5. Cranberry’s second baseman made some good plays on defense. Cranberry scored a run in the sixth.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Ducks lead 3-2. Cranberry started the inning with a walk and a single by the 9 and 10 hitters to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Zuzak struck out the leadoff hitter. The next guy hit a hard grounder to third and Chartier threw the runner out at home. Then with runners on first and second and two out, the game ended on a spectacular play by shortstop Jon Moore who made a diving stop behind second base on what looked like a sure single, and flipping the ball to Sorosky at second base for the game-ending force out.

disco rubber ducks

We ran out of pitching in the second game and walked a bunch of guys and started kicking the ball around. We are all old and would have benefitted from having some subs. I probably shouldn’t have rescheduled this one as a double header, but didn’t know we’d be missing everyone on a random June weekend. In game 2, Moore hit a triple, and Brandt stole home in the bottom of the seventh. Cranberry’s starting pitcher threw a magical game, hitting spots and keeping the Ducks off balance.

bad news pittsburgh naba

It’s frustrating to lose games to teams at the bottom of the standings because everyone is on vacation or whatever (two Devils losses and this one to Cranberry come to mind), but that’s part of the deal with summer league ball. These things probably even out over the course of the season. Maybe we catch a team that’s in the middle of a four games in five days stretch when they have their whole outfield one a cruise or some hipster beer sampling event, and we take advantage of it. Who knows. Every manager and every team in the league deals with it. Hopefully everyone makes the playoff games.

Big picture: We have nine games left including a game with Carrick we still have to reschedule. It’s going to be an exciting stretch run. Two big games against the Express this week. They have a worse record than their talent would indicate, possibly have struggled with attendance due to NHL playoffs.

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Standings as of 6/13

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2016 Playoff Bracket 

Gotta avoid the play-in games.

South Oakland next plays 9PM Wednesday in Spring Hill vs. Carrick.

quack

Life in the Fast Lane: Ducks Win, 13-5. Take Season Series from South Side

2016 South Oakland Ducks, pittsburgh NABA

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side overcame deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 to defeat the South Side Eagles by a score of 13-5.

For a while this game felt like that time you waited outside Jacks for two hours on Christmas morning until it opened at 7AM so you could drink yourself down off that coke bender and numb the pain of another lonely holiday. The Eagles were running and hitting doubles and their starter was hitting spots. Then the Ducks put together a nine-run inning off that lefty and the super-enthusiastic third baseman.

rally duck2South Side lead 5-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, and then the Ducks sent fourteen batters to the plate and scored nine runs, off two different relief pitchers.

Koshzow, Morgan, Graff, and Nichols all hit doubles. Dipaola had two hits, Petril went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Brandt drew a walk and went first to third on a single by Graff and later scored. Kirk Gibson went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 RBI. he scored on an error by the Eagles third baseman to tie the game at 3 in the third inning.

Gutsy efforts by Heisler and DiPaola (W, 3-1) on the mound, both pitched hurt and gave us a chance to win on a night when they didn’t have their best stuff.

With the win, the Ducks record improves to 7-6 and gives them the head-to-head tie breaker over the Eagles (8-6).

We are still right in the division race. We need to finish at least fourth to avoid the paly-in game. First or second will get us a bye to the winners bracket semi-finals in the double elimination tourney.

donnie

South Oakland has a double header against Cranberry (2-9-1) this Saturday starting at 2:30pm, game 2 immediately to follow.

quack

 

 

Back Down To .500: Ducks Lose.

2016 South Oakland Ducks

devils pittsburgh naba

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-6) lost 7-5 to the South Hills Devils (5-6) Saturday at Herschel Field. Ducks pitchers walked eleven batters over six innings and the Devils had a few timely hits.

Trailing 4-0 going into the third, South Oakland rallied and brought the score to 4-3 when Strom singled in a run and Gwin scored on an error and TJ Morgan doubled.

Gwin was later caught in a rundown and picked off trying to steal second.

The Devils added a run in the bottom of the inning, and two more insurance runs in the fifth.

In the top of the sixth, Jimmy Moore drove in a run with a solid hit-by-pitch and McCray added a sac fly to close the gap to 7-5. Moore pitched the bottom of the sixth, struck out 2 and kept the devils off the board.

South Hills held off a late South Oakland rally, and the Ducks left the tying run on second base in the top of the seventh.

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  • This was a tough one to lose, but we played them tough without our entire starting infield.
  • It was good to have Limbach back.
  • The ump had a small zone and we weren’t as patient as we could have been in some cases. Strom got squeezed but we didn’t make their guy work as hard as we could have.
  • We are still right in the thick of it, at 6-6 and only 1.5 games back.
  • Big game against the Eagles (7-5), Wednesday night 9PM at Springview Field.

Quack

The Scooter is Safe: Ducks Win, 6-3

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Chris Heisler (1-0) earned his first win and Gary Musisko recorded his first hit as Duck, leading South Oakland (6-5) to a 6-3 victory over the Hebrew Oilers (7-4-1) Wednesday night in Spring Hill.

With the Ducks clinging to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Graff and Zuzak singled to start the inning followed by Musisko’s double off the ivy in left-center. Sorosky followed with an RBI single to chase the General from the mound.

patton1

Still in the fifth, Casale walked and Gwin singled with the bases loaded to put the Ducks up 5-0. Gwin would later score on Chartier’s RBI groundout.

kenny_powers_eastbound2011

The Oilers fought back. In the sixth, some kid got hit three times before he was awarded first. One of the Ciccones got tossed. The Oilers scored three on an RBI double by NABA legend Dan Rouf (sic).

Zuzak relieved Heisler for the two inning save.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and moves South Oakland into a tie for second.

bullets_fever

  • Pat DiPaola stole third
  • Joe Graff has a two-game hit streak going
  • Weird batter interference call on the attempted steal of home by that fast kid on the Oilers. Also, how was the batter called out and not the runner in that instance?
  • A. Ciccone went 3-for-4 with three singles in a losing effort
  • Winner of the Ducks Oilers game on June 21st at Mellon Park gets the scooter that kid threw at us last week. The scooter will remain with the team that wins the season series between the Ducks and Oilers as long as the two teams are in existence. This is the inaugural Spring Hill Scooter Series.
  • Seven teams are within 2.5 games of first. Should be an exciting stretch run

disco rubber ducks

All hands on deck for the Devils game this Saturday. A bunch of guys are out of town.

Quack