Box Score

The Ducks lost a heart breaker to the Plum Warriors 6-4 in extra innings last night in Spring Hill. South Oakland took a 4-3 lead in the fifth, but Plum answered with an RBI double in the 6th, chasing Ducks starter Randy Patton from the game. Patton allowed 2 ER through 5, and gave the Ducks a chance to win.

Ducks reliever Billy Welsh (L, 1-1) finished the game. striking out ten batters in four innings. He allowed the winning runs on two infield hits, a bizarre no-call on an interference at home when a runner tried to pull the ball from the Ducks catcher’s glove, and a seeing eye single to right. The Warriors battled and deserve credit for working out of several jams, including an inning-ending double play with runners on first and third in the bottom of the seventh.

South Oakland hit well but left 12 runners on, 8 in scoring position. In the fifth inning. The Ducks had two runners thrown out at third base on hits, and also made five errors.

• We have 3 losses by a total of 4 runs.
• It is still early, but we’ve dropped a few that could come back to hurt us in the seeding later in the year. Who knows. Big picture we’re fine, but we need to stop finding ways to lose these games before we fall too far out of the race for a bye.
• I don’t think we can keep hitting this bad with guys on base, some of that will regress to the mean over the course of the year. Maybe it’s an approach thing.

South Oakland plays next on Monday night, 8pm at Herschel Park vs the first place Devils

South Oakland (0-2) lost its second one-run game after allowing three unearned runs in the third inning in Cranberry Sunday afternoon. Brandon Blackstone (L, 0-1) was the hard luck loser for the Ducks, pitching six strong innings and giving his team a chance to win.

South Oakland jumped out to a three-run lead on TJ Morgan’s second inning, three-run single to right center. The Buccos capitalized on a couple Ducks errors, two infield hits, and a bizarre botched run-down play in the bottom of the third. They took a 4-3 lead, and the Ducks would not recover.

South Oakland’a next game is Tuesday night at home vs Keystone Oaks.

Box Score

Cranberry starting pitcher Jake Stumpf (W, 1-0) threw six innings and allowed one run as Cranberry beat South Oakland 2-1 in Spring Hill last night.

Ducks starter Randy Patton (L, 0-1) held Cranberry to one earned run over 5 innings. Cranberry scored on a walk, wild pitch, and two infield hits in the first, then scratched across another run later in the game. South Oakland pulled within one on Anthony DeFillipo’s sixth inning solo home run, but a late rally came up short when a base running error by the Ducks left fielder led to a game ending double play with runners on second and third.

Overall, this was a tough pitching draw on a cold night on opening day. I think we will be fine.

South Oakland plays next on Friday at Hershel Park against D2.

The Ducks lost to the South Side Eagles 11-10 in game three of the AA Pittsburgh NABA Championship series last night in West End. South Oakland led 2-0 until the Eagles tied it in the third. The Eagles jumped out to a 5-2 lead after four. The Ducks scored seven in the sixth to take a 9-5 lead, but the Eagles tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. The Ducks took a 10-9 lead in the top of the seventh, but could not hold the lead. Randy Patton was the tough luck loser on the mound for South Oakland, allowing the last two unearned runs of the game.

The Eagles won their first title in three tries, losing to in the Single A finals in 2010 or 2011 to either the Devils or Warriors, and to the Bandidos in the Noonan Wedding Series of 2017. This was the Ducks second, second-place finish (lost to Elliot 2-1 in 2011).

Congrats to the Eagles. They had a great regular season and they have a talented roster. I’m glad a legacy team won it, if we didn’t. South Side has been around since 2005 and this is their first title. Good job.

My head says this is the second best way to finish a season, but my heart says it’s the worst.

We had no pitching until Bret Miller and the Oilers sent us Casen and Zach who each won two playoff games for us. We pulled Ducks legend Anthony DeFilippo out of retirement at the deadline. We struggled with attendance problems most of the year and limped in to the playoffs with a 10-14 record.

Going into the tournament, we felt like we could play with anyone, but we had a low seed and a tough draw. We were a long shot. Our odds got worse when we wound up in the losers bracket, but we battled. We had an objectively great post-season run that came up short. I’m gutted.

Neither team wanted to win last night. We gave them a three run lead, they gave it right back, and then we gave it back again. Even after all that, we were up one in the bottom of the seventh. Randy got ground balls from their first two batters. In the last inning, the umpires definitely missed one call, maybe two, but we shouldn’t have been in that position. They might have missed a couple earlier in the game. We should know the umps are going to be bad. They were bad all season.

I really thought we had it when we knocked that hard throwing lefty out of the game. We made too many mistakes at the wrong times. We let it get away from us. It was an ugly game. I’m sad we lost, and that I couldn’t do more to help us win.

Our big missed opportunity was game 1. We didn’t hit well after a week off, and we wasted a great start by Cody Quinn. We could have won at home. The atmosphere at game 2, and throughout the playoffs was awesome.

I’m old.

We went 12 seasons between championship appearances. I will play until I can’t, but I don’t think I have 12 more productive seasons left. None of us thought we’d make it to the finals in mid May, but to get here and then lose in such a heart breaking fashion is a different pain. It hurts because we might not get a better shot. It’s not just the sadness but the vacuum created by the joy that would have been. There’s nothing to fill it.

Still, it was the best playoff run I’ve been a part of since we dropped down a division. It was the most fun I’ve had playing baseball probably since 2003. Even in 2010, it was more relief when we won than joy.

Even now, I’m an optimist. A bunch of old guys and castoffs faced a first-place team led by a group of active college players and we took them to the wire.

I’m proud of the way we played in the playoffs. I’m also proud of the way our guys filled roles and didn’t complain about playing time. Everyone just wanted to win. Everyone was playing hurt and playing hard. Team chemistry is better than it has been in years. We aren’t washed quite yet.

We will be back next year and ready to go for our 20th anniversary season. Maybe we’ll get a jersey patch or something. That would be cool.

Thanks for reading, and sorry about the low quality and frequency of the blog this year.

Quack.

Box Score

South Oakland came from behind to defeat Keystone Oaks 8-7 in Elliot Sunday night behind a strong start from Zach Gift and timely hitting.

Trailing 1-0, South Oakland scored 4 runs in the bottom of the third. With the Ducks clinging to a 5-4 lead in the sixth, Anthony Defillipo hit a two-run double to right-center, driving in what turned out to be much needed insurance runs.

Gift struck out seven over six innings and left in the seventh with a two run lead and a runner on first. Relief pitcher Luke Hudic (W,1-0), loaded the bases with two hit batters then struck out the next two. With two outs and two strikes on the batter, Keystone Oaks tied the game on a two-run error on a shallow fly ball to right. Hudic struck out the next batter.

MVP candidate Alex Swauger led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk and advanced to third on an errant pick-off attempt. After an infield hit by TJ Morgan, Keystone Oaks walked catcher Tom Pulice to load the bases with no outs for Kenny Rayl. Rayl drew a four-pitch walk to end the game.

Some stats:

• Morgan: 3-for-4, 2 RBI
• DeFillipo: 1-for-3, 2B, 3RBI
• Dillon Williams and Tony Casale each went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

This was a big win in an elimination game, after giving up a late lead. Everyone contributed.

South Oakland plays next on Friday night vs. the Bandidos. Time and field tbd, but likely Mellon Park. It will be the first playoff matchup between these two teams.

Quack.

Casen Wolinsky (W, 1-0) pitched a complete game and the Ducks advanced to face Cranberry tomorrow in Cranberry.

In the second inning, South Oakland infielder Anthony DeFilippo drove in the game’s first two runs on his first of two doubles; DeFilippo scored later in the inning on Tony Casale’s ground-rule double into the ravine in right field.

The Ducks put the game out of reach in the fifth inning when third baseman Kenny Rayl hit a three-run home run to give South Oakland a commanding 7-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, D2’s three hitter was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. His replacement struck out swinging to end the game.

DeFilippo, Casale, Alex Swauger, Tom Pulice, Ben Gwin, and Jimmy Murray hit doubles for South Oakland. Eleven different Ducks reached base safely.

South Oakland plays today (Saturday) at Graham Park at 5pm.

Quack.

We have some momentum and should feel confident as we move on to the second round.

Bad news for Cranberry