Author: mightyeskimo

Ducks Lose: BIG OIL: 2, South Oakland 0

2020 South Oakland Ducks

The Ducks lost a heartbreaker, 2-0 to the first place Oilers (4-1) Tuesday night in Brookline. South Oakland was shorthanded, but Billy Welsh (L, 0-1) pitched a gem. Ducks third baseman, Kenny Rayl was 2-for-3 at the plate, but was cheated out of an RBI when his fly ball to the left center gap found the doorway in the fence, and went for a ground rule double. The Ducks left many runners on base.

South Oakland drops to 4-5 on the season with the loss.

Pending further city or county-wide restrictions on outdoor gatherings, the two teams play again Wednesday, 9pm at Springview Field.

Gameday 9: Ducks at Oilers

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4-4)

at

Hebrew Oilers (3-1)

7:30pm

Moore Park

Probable Starters:

BIG OIL: Pearson

Ducks: Welsh

South Oakland travels to historic Moore Park to play the Hebrew Oilers tonight. This is our first game played under “yellow” conditions. If I did anything right as manager, it was quitting before this season. What a mess. The last game between these two teams played at Moore Park ended in a 6-6 tie. It was so long ago, I still had enough of an arm to throw out a runner. Those were the days. Outfield assists and no pandemic.

BIG OIL lost to Cranberry 13-3 on Sunday, but they only had eight guys. We’ve had a good rotating cast of villains in this league (including the Ducks) and our share of rivalries. The Oilers are right up there in both categories.

They have always beaten us when it matters, though, and as evenly matched as we’ve been over the years, they have a title and another finals appearance under their belt. Both years they beat us in the playoffs after we beat them in the regular season. This is kind of how it was with us and the Black Sox for years. We could never get passed them until we brought in Fago the first time. Since 2010, we’ve made most of our personnel additions from within the league. Usually when teams fold (Hurricanes, Owlz, Militia, Bulldogs and most recently the Black Sox) or their manager pisses off a bunch of players like the Bulldogs. Longevity has benefitted us in this regard. The Oilers don’t add many guys from within the league.

This is a big series for both teams.

We have a few former Black Sox who will feel at home in Brookline tonight. Hopefully that gives us the edge we need.

Bad News for the Oilers

Ducks Win: South Oakland 6, South Hills 1

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Box Score

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4-4) took advantage of a six-run fourth inning and a solid start from Randy Patton (W, 2-0) to beat the Devils (4-3) last night in Spring Hill. Matt Schmidt pitched 2/3 inning for the save (1) in his first appearance as a Duck.

TJ Morgan had 2RBI for South Oakland to put the game out of reach.

The Devils and Ducks split their two game series. Each team won 6-1 at home.

Early season scoreboard anomalies in AA

We’ve won two extra inning games by three runs, beating the Eagles 7-4 (9 inn.) and the Bandidos 6-3 (8 inn.).

The Eagles have lost 2 extra inning games this season. Losing in 9 to the Ducks and the Oilers.

The Oilers (3-0) won their first two games on their last at bat. Walk-off wins against the Devils and the Eagles. They beat Cranberry by 6.

South Oakland opens a two game series with undefeated BIG OIL next Tuesday. Time and location tbd. We might play at historic Moore Park. That would be fun.

quack

Gameday 8: Ducks vs Devils

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (3-4)

vs

South Hills Devils (4-2)

9pm

Springview Field

Probable Starters:

Ducks: Patton

Devils: Miske

South Oakland looks to avenge Sunday’s loss to the defending champion Devils tonight in Spring Hill. This is a pretty even matchup and should be another close game. We let Sunday get away from us defensively, and didn’t get to their starter early. He’s not a guy you can let settle in. As far as I know, we have our full infield tonight. That should help. Hopefully, we have an answer for all their lefties.

This is a big game for us to get back to .500 before the Oilers series next week. We always play well at home. I like our chances at the Duck Pond.

Bad News for the Devils

Ducks Lose

2020 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland lost 6-1 to the South Hills Devils last night in Carrick. Devils’ starter Dan Heinecke (W, 1-1) threw a complete game for the win. Brandon Blackstone, went six innings for the Duck in the loss. The Devils took advantage of a three-run fourth and a two-run fifth, and they got great starting pitching.

We had good enough pitching to win, but had some guys playing out of position, and it hurt us. We didn’t take advantage of a few situations when we had men on base. We get another shot at it on Wednesday.

Tom Pulice drove in our run in the first inning. Dillon Williams had two doubles.

South Oakland plays next against the Devils. Wed 9pm at Springview Field.

Gameday 7: Ducks at Devils

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (3-3)

at

South Hills Devils (3-2)

8pm

Volunteers Field

Projected Starters:

Ducks: Blackstone (0-2)

Devils: Heinecke (0-1)

The Ducks travel to Carrick tonight to take on the defending champion Devils in a battle for sole possession of second place. This should be a close game. The winner will have the inside track on a first round bye.

We swept South Hills in the regular season last year, but they won the championship. The Devils are the favorite to win it again this year. No team has won back to back titles since we split into three divisions. We also haven’t voted a team up since Shaler sandbagged their way to a title four years ago. Bandidos, Oilers, and Devils have all remained in AA to defend their titles.

The Devils improved this off-season, adding some guys from the Express and their old home field. I’ve always liked Volunteers because there’s not as much ground to cover in center. They also drag it before every game. It’s a nice change of pace. RIP Carrick Express.

This is a big regular-season game for both teams. We start a home and home tonight, with the second game scheduled for Wednesday at the pond. After a slow start, the Ducks have put together a nice winning streak. Tonight we will go for four in a row.

Bad News for the Devils

 

Ducks Win: South Oakland 6, Bakery Square 3 (8 inn.)

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Box Score

The South Oakland Ducks of the Northside won their third straight game Sunday in Spring Hill. Billy Welsh (W, 1-0) threw 7 innings for his first win as a Duck, and James Fago struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth for his first save of the season.

The Ducks held a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the seventh, then Bakery Square tied the game on an Eric Friend, two-out, two-run double to left. John Friend led off the inning with a bunt single.

Matt Mullen led off the eighth with a single and stole second. Tom Pulice drove in what proved to be the game-winning run with a double to the right-center gap. Gwin and Brandt also drove in insurance runs in the inning.

Big missed opportunity by the Bandidos to not rebrand as the Toros, and go with these unis.

The win brings the Ducks record to 3-3. The Bandidos fall to 2-2.

South Oakland plays next against the Devils, Monday night, 8pm at Volunteers Field in Carrick.

Quack.

Ducks Win: South Oakland 14, Bakery Square 8

2020 South Oakland Ducks

Box Score

The Ducks (3-2) overcame an early 6-0 deficit and stormed back to beat the Bandidos 14-8 in Spring Hill Wednesday night. Randy Patton (W, 1-0) scattered 8 hits over six innings for the victory, and Brandon Blackstone pitched a scoreless seventh. Yohei Sekiya went 2-3 with 4 RBI for the Ducks. The Bandidos fell to 2-1 on the season.

This was a wild one. It was 6-0 Bandidos heading into the bottom of the second. Then their starter walked a bunch of people, and we scored 4 runs. They added another run in the top of the third, and we answered with a six-run inning. It was 10-7 after 4.

Patton settled down and had a couple quick innings.

Then They brought in another guy, and we scored two in the fifth, and two in the sixth.

Eric Friend pitched the sixth for Bakery Square. He made a nice catch earlier in the game in center field.

Our 4-7 hitters this game (Lombardi, Rayl, Gwin, Fago) have over 50 years of NABA experience between us. We all reached base at least twice. Veteran at-bats.

Gutsy performance by Patton on a night he got hit around a little. It looked like this one might get away from us, but we battled, and he gave us a chance to come back.

Missed opportunity by the Bandidos to not get 80s Padres style uniforms when they got new ones.

The Ducks and Bandidos play again Sunday, 9:30am, at Spring View Field

Quack.

 

 

Gameday 5: Ducks vs Bandidos

2020 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (1-3)

vs

Bakery Square Bandidos (2-0)

9pm

Spring View Field

Projected starters:

Ducks: Patton

Bandidos: Friend

South Oakland looks to start a winning streak tonight against the resurgent Bandidos. After a thrilling extra inning win against South Side last weekend the Ducks are back in the win column and feeling confident. Tom Pulice earned his first win as Ducks manager. He’s the fifth coach to win a game for South Oakland.

Ducks managers by year:

  • Gwin: 2003-07
  • Jones: 2008-09
  • Gwin: 2010-11
  • Fago: 2012
  • Morgan: 2013
  • Gwin: 2014-19
  • Pulice: 2020

Based on this pattern, I’ll be back in 2022. The Billy Martin of the Pittsburgh NABA.

Last year the Ducks swept the Bandidos. In 2019, Bakery Square had a statistical anomaly of a season, winning like five games and suffering a bizarre defeat to a short handed Eagles team in the playoffs. But it looks like the odds may have swung back in their favor this season as the Bandidos are off to the best start in team history.

These teams have been rivals since the days of Zack King and the Mon Valley Dirty Birds, when the aforementioned King tried to fight our whole team for some reason. 2014 was a great year. That season, the Dirty Birds played at West Field before the renovation.

After a two year hiatus, the South Oakland Ducks of the North Side are returning to the North Side. We will play our home games at Spring View Field.

West Field was nice, I guess, but the borough was impossible to deal with, and the seeds/maintenance situation was ridiculous. The big dugouts were a nice change of pace, but the lights were impossible there. We tried to get a couple early season dates there this year, and after they charged me for them, they said they were cancelling the whole summer, and turned around and gave a DNL team a permit. I’m still waiting on my refund.

Tonight is a homecoming for the Ducks.

Bad News for the Bandidos

 

 

 

 

All-Decade Team

Uncategorized

In honor of the Undertaker’s retirement, I’m writing a bonus post about the upcoming all-decade NABA team that Cranberry is working on. Every team is nominating five players and then there is supposedly going to be voting on the best player from each team.

I nominated five Ducks:

TJ Morgan, James Fago, Tony Casale, DJ Dover, and Mark Lombardi.

Tom Pulice missed the cut by one year of eligibility, which for these purposes is set at 4 years of non-consecutive service. Randy’s omission deserves discussion, too, as he’s won a lot of games for us in two different stints in South Oakland.

Lombardi, Fago, and Dover are all probably on multiple teams top 5 of the decade. Tony and DJ are the only two to play their whole careers as Ducks.

I guess I could figure out an all 2010s team for the Ducks at some point. Maybe I’ll create a Google sheet and people can vote. Who did I forget? Strom, Sorosky, Graff, Big Mike, Ciccone? We’ve had a lot of good position players over the years. This post would’ve gotten five pages of discussion in 2010. Leave some comments.