2016 South Oakland Ducks

Gameday 16: Ducks Vs. Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (8-7)

vs.

Carrick Express (6-7)

9pm

Springview Field

Big game tonight as the Ducks try to gain ground on the WOLFPACK and keep pace with BIG OIL and a resurgent Eagles team.

The standings are tighter than traffic on Sawmill Run Blvd.

A win puts us in a tie for second with the Oilers, and a loss drops us back into a three-way tie for fourth with the Express and Rebels, both of whom would have games in-hand.

We beat Carrick earlier this season on an Andy Nichols walk-off single. Figures to be another close one tonight.

KellyLeak_cig

  Bad News for the Express

Depleted Ducks Split Double Header With Cranberry

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland (8-7) won game one 3-2 over Cranberry (5-8-1) behind a complete game victory by pitcher Chuck Zuzak and timely hitting and defense. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Ducks utility player, Joe Graff doubled in two runs, and Chartier drove in another. Gwin was hit by a pitch in the fifth, increasing his team leading HBP count to 5. Cranberry’s second baseman made some good plays on defense. Cranberry scored a run in the sixth.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Ducks lead 3-2. Cranberry started the inning with a walk and a single by the 9 and 10 hitters to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Zuzak struck out the leadoff hitter. The next guy hit a hard grounder to third and Chartier threw the runner out at home. Then with runners on first and second and two out, the game ended on a spectacular play by shortstop Jon Moore who made a diving stop behind second base on what looked like a sure single, and flipping the ball to Sorosky at second base for the game-ending force out.

disco rubber ducks

We ran out of pitching in the second game and walked a bunch of guys and started kicking the ball around. We are all old and would have benefitted from having some subs. I probably shouldn’t have rescheduled this one as a double header, but didn’t know we’d be missing everyone on a random June weekend. In game 2, Moore hit a triple, and Brandt stole home in the bottom of the seventh. Cranberry’s starting pitcher threw a magical game, hitting spots and keeping the Ducks off balance.

bad news pittsburgh naba

It’s frustrating to lose games to teams at the bottom of the standings because everyone is on vacation or whatever (two Devils losses and this one to Cranberry come to mind), but that’s part of the deal with summer league ball. These things probably even out over the course of the season. Maybe we catch a team that’s in the middle of a four games in five days stretch when they have their whole outfield one a cruise or some hipster beer sampling event, and we take advantage of it. Who knows. Every manager and every team in the league deals with it. Hopefully everyone makes the playoff games.

Big picture: We have nine games left including a game with Carrick we still have to reschedule. It’s going to be an exciting stretch run. Two big games against the Express this week. They have a worse record than their talent would indicate, possibly have struggled with attendance due to NHL playoffs.

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Standings as of 6/13

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2016 Playoff Bracket 

Gotta avoid the play-in games.

South Oakland next plays 9PM Wednesday in Spring Hill vs. Carrick.

quack

Life in the Fast Lane: Ducks Win, 13-5. Take Season Series from South Side

2016 South Oakland Ducks, pittsburgh NABA

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side overcame deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 to defeat the South Side Eagles by a score of 13-5.

For a while this game felt like that time you waited outside Jacks for two hours on Christmas morning until it opened at 7AM so you could drink yourself down off that coke bender and numb the pain of another lonely holiday. The Eagles were running and hitting doubles and their starter was hitting spots. Then the Ducks put together a nine-run inning off that lefty and the super-enthusiastic third baseman.

rally duck2South Side lead 5-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, and then the Ducks sent fourteen batters to the plate and scored nine runs, off two different relief pitchers.

Koshzow, Morgan, Graff, and Nichols all hit doubles. Dipaola had two hits, Petril went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Brandt drew a walk and went first to third on a single by Graff and later scored. Kirk Gibson went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 RBI. he scored on an error by the Eagles third baseman to tie the game at 3 in the third inning.

Gutsy efforts by Heisler and DiPaola (W, 3-1) on the mound, both pitched hurt and gave us a chance to win on a night when they didn’t have their best stuff.

With the win, the Ducks record improves to 7-6 and gives them the head-to-head tie breaker over the Eagles (8-6).

We are still right in the division race. We need to finish at least fourth to avoid the paly-in game. First or second will get us a bye to the winners bracket semi-finals in the double elimination tourney.

donnie

South Oakland has a double header against Cranberry (2-9-1) this Saturday starting at 2:30pm, game 2 immediately to follow.

quack

 

 

Back Down To .500: Ducks Lose.

2016 South Oakland Ducks

devils pittsburgh naba

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-6) lost 7-5 to the South Hills Devils (5-6) Saturday at Herschel Field. Ducks pitchers walked eleven batters over six innings and the Devils had a few timely hits.

Trailing 4-0 going into the third, South Oakland rallied and brought the score to 4-3 when Strom singled in a run and Gwin scored on an error and TJ Morgan doubled.

Gwin was later caught in a rundown and picked off trying to steal second.

The Devils added a run in the bottom of the inning, and two more insurance runs in the fifth.

In the top of the sixth, Jimmy Moore drove in a run with a solid hit-by-pitch and McCray added a sac fly to close the gap to 7-5. Moore pitched the bottom of the sixth, struck out 2 and kept the devils off the board.

South Hills held off a late South Oakland rally, and the Ducks left the tying run on second base in the top of the seventh.

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  • This was a tough one to lose, but we played them tough without our entire starting infield.
  • It was good to have Limbach back.
  • The ump had a small zone and we weren’t as patient as we could have been in some cases. Strom got squeezed but we didn’t make their guy work as hard as we could have.
  • We are still right in the thick of it, at 6-6 and only 1.5 games back.
  • Big game against the Eagles (7-5), Wednesday night 9PM at Springview Field.

Quack

The Scooter is Safe: Ducks Win, 6-3

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Chris Heisler (1-0) earned his first win and Gary Musisko recorded his first hit as Duck, leading South Oakland (6-5) to a 6-3 victory over the Hebrew Oilers (7-4-1) Wednesday night in Spring Hill.

With the Ducks clinging to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, Graff and Zuzak singled to start the inning followed by Musisko’s double off the ivy in left-center. Sorosky followed with an RBI single to chase the General from the mound.

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Still in the fifth, Casale walked and Gwin singled with the bases loaded to put the Ducks up 5-0. Gwin would later score on Chartier’s RBI groundout.

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The Oilers fought back. In the sixth, some kid got hit three times before he was awarded first. One of the Ciccones got tossed. The Oilers scored three on an RBI double by NABA legend Dan Rouf (sic).

Zuzak relieved Heisler for the two inning save.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak and moves South Oakland into a tie for second.

bullets_fever

  • Pat DiPaola stole third
  • Joe Graff has a two-game hit streak going
  • Weird batter interference call on the attempted steal of home by that fast kid on the Oilers. Also, how was the batter called out and not the runner in that instance?
  • A. Ciccone went 3-for-4 with three singles in a losing effort
  • Winner of the Ducks Oilers game on June 21st at Mellon Park gets the scooter that kid threw at us last week. The scooter will remain with the team that wins the season series between the Ducks and Oilers as long as the two teams are in existence. This is the inaugural Spring Hill Scooter Series.
  • Seven teams are within 2.5 games of first. Should be an exciting stretch run

disco rubber ducks

All hands on deck for the Devils game this Saturday. A bunch of guys are out of town.

Quack

 

 

 

 

Flying Scooter: Ducks Lose, 10-6

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap

The Ducks (5-5) dropped their third straight game, losing 10-6 to the South Side Eagles (6-5) in Spring Hill last night. The Eagles scored seven in the top of the first, aided by a couple errors and a bad hop that hit our short stop in the face.

Then kids started throwing shit at us from the basketball court. After a scooter was tossed before the game, a metal bat flew through the air and nearly took out our bench coach. Police were called. Where are these kids parents? Rough times at the Duck Pond.

South Oakland battled back, bringing the score to 7-6 going into the seventh. But the Eagles scored three runs off two hits and two errors and put it out of reach. The Ducks had the winning run at the plate in the bottom half of the inning, when Mike Brandt hit a shot to left field that was caught for the final out.

Joe Graff recorded his first hit as a Duck, reaching base twice and scoring in his South Oakland debut. TJ Morgan legged out an infield hit.

We left the bases loaded three times and couldn’t get a big hit early to close the gap. The Eagles got those hits with men in scoring position. This was almost a mirror image of the game the two teams played in Elliot, where we beat the Eagles 10-6 after jumping out to an early 7-0 lead.

Someone stole our ball bucket.

All the teams in our division are really close. We’ve played every team and been in every game. We’re never going to be over-matched. I’m more optimistic about where we’re at in relation to the rest of the league in regards to making a playoff push than I am upset at the recent three-game skid and the shitty first inning last night. This is a deeper team than any we’ve had in the post-Fago era. We should play with a lot of confidence going forward.

Quack

 

 

Gameday 10: Ducks vs. Eagles

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs.

South Side Eagles

9pm

Springview Field

After two tough losses and what feels like a month off, the Ducks (5-4) take on the Eagles (5-5) at Spring Hill tonight. The Ducks held on for a 10-7 win in the teams’ previous meeting.

South Side has the second best run differential in the league, but is only at .500. They score a lot of runs.

The standings are really tight right now. The Wolfpack are in first place at 6-3 and the next six teams are separated by 2 games. Cranberry is having a rough start at 1-6-1, but are only three back in the loss column.

This is a big game tonight as South Oakland looks to gain separation from the pack and stay in the hunt for a first round bye in the playoffs.

KellyLeak_cigBad News for the Eagles

Game Day 8: Ducks at WOLFPACK

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (5-2)

at

West View WOLFPACK (3-3)

8:30PM

John Herb Field

The first place Ducks look to win their fourth straight game when they face rival West View in what should be a close game between two evenly matched teams. South Oakland beat West View 9-6 early this season, but the WOLFPACK!!! are tough at home. They have a loyal and vocal fan base.

Some history for the new guys:

 

The WOLFPACK eliminated us from the playoffs in the 2014 semis in a series that turned when we were kicked off that field in Jefferson Hills over a permit dispute the weekend of some country music concert. In the rescheduled game, Strom was perfect through 3 innings before Donnie was thrown out at the plate and accidentally ran into their catcher. Benches cleared, as they do sometimes in adult league sports. They came back from a 1-0 series deficit to beat us in 3 games. Fetter blew out his knee and moved off the grid to southern California, never to be heard from again.

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They are always tough. John Herb is one of the nicest fields we get to play on, and it’s always in great shape. This game will pit the veteran savvy of the Ducks against the youth of West View.

doc naba

 Bad News for the WOLFPACK