We are responsible for 40% of the Devils’ wins this season with a 1-2 overall record vs. South Hills. Pitching is thin for us tonight, but they’re coming off two games this weekend too, so it should even out. Who knows. We need someone to step up.
Bad News for the Devils
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side defeated BIG OIL 7-5 behind Brian Strom’s 3-for-3, 3 RBI night and another strong start from Zuzak (W, 4-1).
The Ducks jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings, the teams traded runs until the seventh, when the Oilers pulled to within 7-5 with two outs and a runner on second. Then Ducks relief pitcher Chris Heisler struck out their clean up hitter to end the game. Big time pitching.
Morgan drove in two runs for the Ducks and Sorosky laid down his team leading, second sac bunt of the season.
A. Ciccone went 3-for-4 with an RBI double, reached on an error and stole three bases in a losing effort.
South Oakland wins the season series against BIG OIL 2 to 1, and retains the Spring Hill Scooter, which was thrown at the home dugout during their loss to the Eagles a few weeks ago.
Chartier is holding the scooter. I’m holding Chartier’s arm in its socket.
The Ducks (10-7) have won four of their last five and are now in third place, 1.5 games behind West View (10-4) and half a game behind the Eagles (12-8).
The Duck’s next game is Wednesday night, 9PM at Spring Hill vs. the South Hills Devils.
quack
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.
Bad News for the Express
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.
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.
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.
Standings as of 6/13
2016 Playoff Bracket
Gotta avoid the play-in games.
South Oakland next plays 9PM Wednesday in Spring Hill vs. Carrick.
quack
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.
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.
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.
All hands on deck for the Devils game this Saturday. A bunch of guys are out of town.
Quack
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
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.
Bad News for the Eagles
![Game Day [10]: Ducks (6-3) vs Bulldogs (3-3)](https://southoaklandducks.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/abraham-lincoln-antietam-battlefield2.jpg)
Bad News for the Rebels
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.
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.
Bad News for the WOLFPACK
South Oakland of the North Side (4-2) beat the South Side Eagles (2-4) by a score of 10-7 in an ugly win at Herschel Park.
Chuck Zuzak (3-2) pitched five strong innings for the win, and Tuomisto faced two batters for the save. Tuomisto doubled and drove in 2, Strom had 2RBI and both Gwin and Brandt drove in a runs via hit by pitch.
According to the schedule we should have been visitors this game, but the Eagles insisted we were the home team, and then we played the first two innings with those weird rubber coated baseballs supplied by South Side. Shrewd move on the Eagles part, as it might have prevented a home run by Tuomisto during the Ducks seven run first inning.
The Eagles fought back, scoring two in the 4th and one in the 5th. South Oakland scored three more in the fifth and held off a late Eagles rally.
Ben Sorosky was caught stealing.
South Oakland is now in first place after six games, but several teams have played 4 or fewer games. Shaler has only played twice so far. We’ve played everyone but Shaler, and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to run away with it. Double A should be the most competitive division the season.
The Ducks next game is 8pm Monday night in Carrick against the Express.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 