South Oakland was swept out of the 2023 playoffs after losing to Butler and D2, two weeks ago in Spring Hill. The Ducks had a clear lead-off home run by Mark Lombardi ruled foul in the bottom of the first against Butler, and they never recovered. South Oakland went on to lose their opening round game 5-4 after another blown call on a play at the plate. After the tough loss, D2 beat the Ducks 10-0 and South Oakland was eliminated. There would be no miracle run to the finals.

This year’s team suffered two key injuries that we couldn’t overcome. Last year’s starting shortstop hurt his arm in the offseason, and our starting center fielder hurt himself early in the season. Then our new shortstop and our best pitcher were unavailable for the opening round of the playoffs. Overall, we did pretty well with the things we could control this year, and during the second half, we played some really good baseball. We won 9 of 10 to close out the season with a winning record. It was fun down the stretch. We won the season series against everyone but Keystone Oaks and our new nemesis, Butler.

We got a tough draw in the playoffs in that D2 is probably the only team with enough pitching to get through the play-in round and the Bandidos and still have a really good starter for a third game. As usual, they were better than their record indicated. The “We have baseball jerseys at home” Butler Buccos certainly had our number this year for some reason. If they don’t fold, and we manage to beat them, there could be a good rivalry brewing. The atmosphere around games with them is certainly different with all the parents and shit.

Losing early this year wasn’t shocking given the guys we were missing, and the second-round exit in and of itself isn’t heartbreaking, but it makes me more mad about last year’s finals. We had the Eagles on the ropes in that series, and they beat us with illegal players. We took two out of three from them this year without their ringers, and our only loss was a meaningless game for us that they had to win to avoid the play-in game. I guess we should have protested their guys’ eligibility in 2022. That missed opportunity is a little starker after working really hard this year to get better playoff seed only to get bounced while our ace was at the beach. Oh well. Hopefully, we can figure out our defense up the middle in the off season, and make a deep run next year.

Personally, I feel like I still have some years left. I can’t run as well in the second of back to back games, but my (admittedly bloated) stats say I contributed. At 42 years old, I’m still punching above my weight class and leaning into pitches. I think we have a great core of veteran guys who play well together, and we are determined to win one before we all ride off into the slow-pitch softball sunset.

As always, I’m humbled to still have a team and a league to play in. I don’t know what else I’d do during the summer.

Congrats to the Bandidos for a dominant season and a title won without any illegal players. Also, Cranberry had a hell of a run after half their team left in March.

Here’s to next season.

Thanks for reading.

Quack.