South Oakland defeated D2 and Cranberry last weekend to raise their record to 7-10, and move out of last place. The wins gave the team two, key tie-breakers as they won the season series against both teams. The Ducks were then rained out on Monday and Tuesday. After a brutal start to the season, the Ducks have won 4 of their last 6 games.
South Oakland plays next on Monday, July 3, against the Plum Warriors, 7:30 pm at Plum High School.
Quack.
South Oakland is mired in last place again after getting swept by the Butler Buccos (8-5) in Spring Hill last night. It was a horrendously officiated contest that featured multiple player ejections. I think the final was 9-3.
Butler had our number this year.
It looks bleak right now, but if we can get out of the 8/9 play-in game there’s not much difference between finishing second or seventh. We’re in a log jam of teams with 5 or 6 wins, and we play Plum (5-10), Cranberry (6-7), and D2 (6-8) in the next week, and we have two games left vs the 6-9 Eagles. So there’s still hope we can move up and figure it out before the playoffs. We will be a tough out if we can finish somewhere in the 5-7 range. Maybe one of these teams won’t pay their dues and we will get lucky and there won’t be an 8-9 game. It’s definitely possible.
Also, the way the league home page sorts the standings by points is annoying.
South Oakland plays next vs D2, Thursday night, 8:30pm at Springview Field.
Quack.
We are 2-5 in one run games, and lost another in extra innings. Our run differential is -3. The other 4-9 team, Plum, has a run differential of -58. I’ve played on bad teams before and this team doesn’t feel like it should be this bad. We have too much pitching. All our games are really close. But we are finding ways to lose. We’re making stupid mistakes, untimely errors, and aren’t making productive outs when we need them. Our shortstop got hurt during the offseason, and we haven’t found an answer.
We had bases loaded with zero outs today, and didn’t score. The runner on third got a terrible jump on a hard hit grounder to short, and was thrown out at home. The next batter K’d after fake-bunting for some reason, and then we had a runner picked of second on a spin move with a full count with one of our best hitters up.
We’ve had runners thrown out at home in the last inning when we were trailing by five only to eventually have the tying run at the plate with two outs. We’ve had bad calls go against us, but so has everyone. We have been stupid aggressive in situations when we need to be smart, and passive when we need to try to force the issue or make a play on defense. We don’t get bunts down. We don’t steal enough, but then we try to steal third with nobody out and get caught, or try to go first to third and get thrown out. These things keep happening and they continue to decide games for us. I guess this is who we are now.
These are mistakes that don’t happen much in general, but when they have happened they’ve killed us. Those are the things we can control. It’s really wild. Some of it is luck. We’re playing like 80% great baseball, but instead of just shitting the bed in 20% of our games, we’re fucking up 20% of all our games and losing by very little, very often.
What sucks is that we are getting great starting pitching, and good hitting. But we can’t get out of our own way. Our record has overshadowed some great individual performances.
We have eleven games left, and our goal should be to stay out of the 9 vs 8 play-in game. This is an attainable goal, especially for a team with our staff. I’m optimistic we can get it figured out and make another deep run, but it feels like were just fucking stuck right now.
The Ducks next game is Tuesday at home at 8:30 vs the Devils.
South Oakland dropped back to back games this week to Bakery Square and Butler by a combined score of 21-11. The losses were due to poor defense and attendance issues. The Ducks (3-6) look to rebound Thursday evening with a happy hour tilt at Keystone Oaks, 6:15 in Greentree.
South Oakland lost 5-1 to the first place Devils in Elliot Monday night. Four, first-inning errors led to a 4-0 deficit that the Ducks could not overcome. The rest of the game was played pretty tight. Randy Patton (L, 0-2) was the tough-luck loser despite throwing a good game, and keeping the Ducks within striking distance.
The Ducks rebounded on Tuesday, beating Cranberry 2-1 in Spring Hill. South Oakland starter, Brandon Blackstone threw six innings of one-run ball and outdueled 2022 pitcher of the year, Jon Hart for the win. The Ducks scratched across two runs on six hits, and Luke Hudic struck out the side in the seventh for the save (1) to secure a much-needed victory.
We lost 6-4 in 9 innings to the Warriors last week. It was a game we had a few chances to win, but made one too many mistakes. Tuesday’s win against arguably the best non-Duck pitcher in the league is the kind that can turn a season around, but we have to build on it. There are only two teams over .500 right now: the resurgent Devils, and the preseason favorite Bandidos. Everyone is pretty evenly matched. There is a lot of baseball left.
I like our chances at home tonight. We have Billy on the hill and Kenny Powers behind the plate.
Bad news for the Warriors
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.
South Oakland plays next on Monday night, 8pm at Herschel Park vs the first place Devils
South Oakland and Plum both have a chance to get back to .500 tonight in Spring Hill. South Oakland is well rested coming off a rain out over the weekend while Plum will play its third game in three days. If tonight’s game comes down to bullpen depth, the Ducks should have the edge.
Tonight’s game is a rematch of the 2003 championship, which the Ducks won 9-8 or something. That contest saw the Warriors (then the Piranhas) field a lineup with several active college players including their starting pitcher who we did not see during the regular season. The roster rules were more relaxed then. The Ducks held off a late rally and won the inaugural Pittsburgh NABA championship as the five seed in the six team league.
The Warriors, led by all time stolen base leader, Justin Newman, have won 3 of 4 Single A titles and were forced to finally move up. They seem to be acclimating themselves fairly well with a handful of close wins scattered between lopsided losses. Tonight should be another exciting matchup. I like our chances playing at home with a rested pitching staff.
Bad News for the Warriors
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.
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 2022 Finalist South Oakland Ducks open their season at home tonight vs. Cranberry. Cranberry always plays South Oakland tough, and tonight should be no different despite a tumultuous offseason for Cranberry which led to significant turnover for the team from Butler County.
The Ducks welcome back some familiar faces this season, sparking a non-controversy over stealing players that ignited an argument in the preseason league meetings. We will return pretty much the same roster with a few additions. We hope to win more games in the regular season this year so we don’t have to win six straight playoff games in the losers bracket to get to the finals again. We should be in the mix late, but there are some great teams in our division. Lets have a look.
Bandidos steal Bulldogs manager from Bulldogs, improve uniforms. Eric and John Friend are being fined for player tampering after engaging in premature negotiations with former Bulldogs manager, and occasional Ducks tournament player, Colin “Cups” Dougherty while he was still under contract with himself to play for the Bulldogs. Gregg Friend was quoted, “I don’t know what my family is doing.”
Pittsburgh D2 added mercurial slugger and perennial MVP candidate Luke Gapinski [sic] from Sheraden. This addition brings a solid middle of the lineup bat, and makes a great pitching staff even better. I’m sure they will all get along just fine.
Speaking of the Jays, after their waiver requests were denied, along with their initial attempt to play in A, they decided to play in AAA with three active college players on their roster rather than stay in AA with one active college player. When asked for comment, the jays manager said, “SCARED!” Stunning lack of accountability.
Speaking of college players, the Eagles are off to an 0-2 start. They stayed in AA after winning the title, but supposedly had to cut two of their ringers. But at least they have last year’s MVP who was probably the fifth most valuable player on his own team and maybe the fourth best catcher in AA. I guess he got on base a lot for the Point Park kids. The Eagles will be good again this year, but our catcher is better.
Speaking of the Devils, I think they will surprise some teams this year. Or maybe they will continue their slow, steady decline since their 2019 title. In a parallel universe, they would still have Luke and that guy from Carrick and they would fight everyone and then be forced to move to the Daily News League due to a brawl in the stands or an on-field stabbing.
Tonight’s opponent, Cranberry, saw half their roster leave and form a new team, the Butler Buccos. There is still a non-zero chance both Cranberry teams fold, though I imagine they will both pull it together and play .500 ball this summer. Butler will probably be good, but they don’t have a field permit yet. They have one of the worst nickname and uniform combos I’ve ever seen in an adult sports league. It’s offensive. Though they only narrowly edge the Warriors for worst uniforms.
Speaking of the Warriors, they cheat. The have a storied history of questionable roster moves in the playoffs. They get away with it because no one will call out other teams on having illegal players until the game is over, which is not how the rule works. The only team I’ve seen successfully challenge an illegal player is the Warriors, who did it last year in the Single A Finals against the Lions who were super pissed. Be ready to ask for IDs.
I’m not writing about Keystone Oaks in protest of their 6:15 weekday time slot. I may be forgetting a team entirely. If so, I’m sorry.
This is our 20th anniversary season. I’ve been a Duck for 20 years. Our youngest rostered player is 19. I am humbled to play another season with and against much more accomplished players than myself. This is an unforgiving game, and I’m happy I can still contribute at 42.
We have a couple question marks with Tony and Casen on the shelf with arm injuries to start the season, but we have contingency plans in case they can’t get on the field. Hopefully they heal up by June and get their 7 games in before playoffs.
I think we will be motivated this season after coming so close last year. If we get some bounces, we could make another deep run. We have pitching depth and a solid lineup.
Bad News for Everyone.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 