South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4 -1, 5-5-2)
at
Cranberry (1-2, 4-7)
2pm
North Boundary Park
As of 9:42 we’re playing, I imagine the field up there has dried out, and will be playable at 2pm.
I’m sure the infield will be quick…
After a season and a half Cranberry still doesn’t have a mascot, I think that could be holding them back.
We can put some pressure on the rest of the division today with a win. To the amazement of others around the league, our team is in first place going into our sixth division game, and competing for a first round bye.
Despite our 2 – 0 record against Cranberry, they’re a tough team that has definitely improved from last year. The lineup they put on the field wed was almost entirely different from the first game we played this season, so we’ll see how it plays out.
We can’t look past this game.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Sox/Cherokee marathon doubleheader goes today, how Clinton handles their staff with 3 division games in 4 days.
Patton and Captain America will see give us some innings today.
Bobby Swartwout (sp) drove in three runs, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single off the wall to lead South Oakland (4-1, 5-5-2) past Cranberry Wednesday night. Ducks pitcher James Fago allowed one unearned run over six innings, holding Cranberry to 3 hits and recording an estimated 9 Ks. I have now gone from spelling out numbers to writing them as numerals.
Cranberry scored their run early on a walk, a hit batter, a past ball and an error in some order.
The Ducks tied the game in the third when Ken Cool doubled and scored from second on an infield hit by Gwin who reached third on a double by our new utility infielder. Fago walked and scored on Swartwout’s bases clearing double.
South Oakland added another run on a sac fly by centerfielder TJ Morgan.
I don’t know where we’d be without Morgan this season, and I’m at a complete loss as to how we scored our other run. I think a groundout.
Robert Patton pitched a perfect seventh to preserve the victory.
There are still players on our team who haven’t met each other. There are at least four guys whose names i don’t know, and may never know, but after a brutal start that included a 17 – 1 loss to the Bulldogs, we’re playing better baseball.
We have another important division game against Cranberry Saturday 2pm, at North Boundary Park.
We can go to 4 -1 in the division and get to .500 overall with a win tonight.
I know last time we played Cranberry, a 7 – 3 Ducks victory, they were complaining about how slow our pitching was.
We’ve been told the city has actually been working on the field, plans to actually level the infield, fix the two-foot gap under the fence, and airrate the outfield are among the rumors. I’ll believe it when i see it. We either need that or bring back an infielder whose got some experience playing those bad hops…
I haven’t been this excited for a game in a while.
It looks like the league this year is incredibly balanced. That, combined with the meaninglessness of the non-division games, has lead to a lot of decent but not spectacular records.
Cranberry beat the Black Sox last weekend making our division race much tighter, and the games this week even more important.
The Cherokee play the Black Sox in what looks like a home and home double header on Saturday 3:30 in the twilight zone and 9pm at Moore Park. Wild scheduling – Kenny Powers does not want to fall to 0 – 4 in divisional play, and Ken Cool’s brother definitely wants the Cherokee to bury Brookline. I guess it’s in our best interest to root for a split there. I don’t know.
There will be intense baseball down the stretch for sure.
Thank god we won’t have to go back to Findlay in the regular season. The field is fine, but the lack of shade makes me dizzy thinking about it.
Two Big games this week vs Cranberry: Wed, 9pm at SpringView, and Saturday, 2pm at North Boundary Park. We’ve got a chance to get over .500 overall and go to 5 -1 in the division.
South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-0, 3-4-3)
at
Clinton Cherokee (0-0, 5-2)
1pm and 3:30pm
Middle of Nowhere (seriously, according to this yahoo maps link, we’re playing in a parallel dimension)
In this alternate universe, all teams want pictures like this taken of their summer league teams.
They look like they mean business – and check out the sick piping!
This is probably just some art students’ school project, but whatever.
If Ken Cool’s brother had stuck around we might have Ducks pics like this: I’d want a silhouette of Guth holding up that cigar on top of the Cool’s picnic table right before he blacked out and fell on the driveway after we won the championship, imposed in front of Dan Marino field in Oakland with a drug deal taking place in the background and some little kids playing with a broken 40 bottle.
Sadly, me and Fago’s inability to provide our team with posters of ourselves led to the loss of some quality players.
Our pitching situation is gonna be touch and go, but we should have most of our lineup.
Stats are up for all games but the Express game in which everyone got on base at least twice.
Thanks, Kenny.
Ken Cool leads the team in most offensive categories.
Doubleheader vs. Clinton Tomorrow starting at 1pm.
Maybe I’ll put together some kind of incredibly literary write up for it, but probably not today. At some point the split will be addressed on here for the 30 or so readers we get regularly, but I’m not sure how I want to approach it.
We’re playing good baseball recently, and we need to keep that momentum going.
Ducks pitcher James Fago went seven innings, allowing 3 hits, and 2ER, while striking out several and walking few.
The Ducks scored 2 in the top of the first on TJ Morgan’s bases loaded infield single. On the play Black Sox third baseman Kenny Powers made a spectacular barehanded catch on a well-placed roller down the line but could not throw out the hustling Morgan. Gwin scored from second on the play also hustling.
Brookline answered in the top of the third when with two outs their two hitter fouled off a pitch that hit his hand, then after he struck out swinging, Ducks catcher, Ben Gwin, misplayed the pitch in the dirt and hit the kid in the hand again with his throw to first. He would later score on a ball up the middle, on the play, however, Ducks second baseman Ken Cool hit the kid in the back.
Later in the inning, Kenny Powers scored after he stole second but was nearly thrown out. Ball beat him there, but he slid around the tag.
Fago handled himself with composure and calmness in the dugout after the Ducks allowed 2 unearned runs in the inning. It was as if it didn’t phase him.
The game remained tied.
We caught the second baseman in a rundown between third and home in the top of the fourth when we executed the first and third play we’ve been working on all season. He was out.
To end the top of the fifth, Kenny Powers was thrown out at home at one point trying to tag on a shallow fly to center.
in the bottom of the inning Brian Strom recorded his first hit as a Duck, after we saved the ball for enshrinement on his mantle, Strom stole second and advanced to third on a groundout by Gwin. Strom scored on a Fago single.
The Sox starter was pissed. He was pulled for another lefty.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Ducks scored three runs on a walk, 2 bunt singles another infield hit and a linedrive to right by Ken Cool’s friend Brian.
The Sox scored a run in the top of the seventh, on a double by Florian and a single by their really intense catcher.
Fago struck out Goldie swinging to end the game.
***
South Oakland is 2 – 0 in division play heading into their Saturday double header against Ken Cool’s brother’s team.
Trying to write any more about this rivalry makes me want to puke. It’s all redundant at this point. Brookline is always tough. Somehow, we always seem to absorb players from teams who have a history of fighting (whether in the stands on the field or whatever) during games against those guys. The Hurricanes beat the Sox to win the ’09 title, after the Sox beat the Owlz in the semis. We beat the Sox to win the ’10 championship. I think they’ve got some big time pitching this year. Our field is so slanted towards first base after all that rain, it’s a joke. I wonder what the all time Sox-Ducks series is at. I think Kenny and I are the only two players who’ve been around for all those games.
We’ve got to keep our momentum going within the division. We’ve already allowed more runs than we did all of last season. We need to reverse this trend. Defense and pitching need to be more consistent. If so, we can play with anybody.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 