We played the Sens on Sat and, like the first match-up, outlasted them in a game that was close early and turned into a fairly one-sided Ducks win.
I have to wonder who they’re going to throw on short rest today.
The Lions swept the bombers on Sunday, and are now tied for first at 10-4. The Bombers are making me look bad for touting them so highly early on.
The WOLFPACK!!! are 9-3.
We’re starting to see some separation between the top 3 teams and the rest of the conference. The Monsters, Bombers and Titans are all under achieving right now, as best as I can tell, and the Senators and Warriors have been unable to get into the swing of the season with all the rain outs.
We need a win tonight keep pace, and stay in the hunt for a bye in the playoffs.
Assume the game is on, unless there is a monsoon. Rescheduling this time of year is near-impossible.
Captain America is scheduled to make his return tonight.
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side defeated the Senators 10-6 (as confirmed by the scorebook) Saturday afternoon in North Park. The win brings the Ducks (9-3) back into a tie for first with the WOLFPACK!!! and keeps South Oakland a game ahead of North America. The Senators dropped to 3-8.
The Ducks struck first in the top of the second. After the Sens recorded two quick outs, their starting pitcher walked the ducks 7,8,9 hitters, before Gwin singled in two.
Then Senators took a 4-2 lead in the bottom half of the inning as Matt Swetz struggled with his command. Swetz finished with 2Ks in 1 2/3 IP, and allowed only one hit. There were many walks, and some errors.
The Ducks tied the game in the third when Strom singled in Culp.
Then the Senators went ahead 5-3 after three, but South Oakland scored three in the top of the fourth when Moore singled past a drawn-in infield, then Limbach hit an RBI fielder’s choice to first, before Culp a two-run triple. Culp finished 1-for-1 with a triple, 3 walks, and 2RBI.
The Senators put in a reliever at some point. The Ducks added four in the top of the sixth. Dover hit a two-run double that one-hopped the fence in left. I’ve never seen a ball hit that far at Pie Trayor. Riley drove in a run with a ground out to first.
Strom was robbed of extra bases. for the final out of the inning.
Ben Hartranft suffered an upper body injury making a diving attempt at a single in the third inning. Hartranft finished 1-for-2 with a walk and an RBI.
One of the Senators players blew hit knee out, then almost singled on one leg in the second inning, but was thrown out at first in a 9-1-3 putout. I think that’s the first time we’ve forced out a guy from the outfield. Naturally Garrett was involved.
Really, that was a bad coaching mistake that led to the Sens having to take an out. Always leave one guy out of the batting lineup if you can just for flexibility. Though, it did speed up the game.
South Oakland’s next game is Wednesday vs. the Senators, 8pm at Spring Hill.
We’re going to have to juggle the lineup a bit due to a whole bunch of weddings this weekend. The Senators have beaten the Titans, Bombers and Monsters, 3 teams that have played us close. But man, 86 runs against in ten games is a lot.
A win ties us for first again and puts the pressure on the WOLFPACK! (9-3) to win Sunday night to keep pace.
If I’m late, Strom is in charge.
The commish is MIA, the bulldogs blog is dormant.
We are finally getting back on a regular weekend then Wednesday schedule for a bit before we have six game in seven days from (I think) the 22nd to the 29th of June.
18A news:
The Lions (8-4) have won four straight and are now a game out of first.
The WOLFPACK! won two, one-run games last weekend over the Titans and Bombers respectively.
The Warriors (1-6) have been rained out at least once a week all season long.
Jason Fetter will be South Oakland’s starting pitcher this afternoon, but Matt Swetz may make his return to the mound out of the bullpen, nine years removed from his last NABA appearance. Swetz also gets to bat cleanup today because of pizza.
South Oakland of the North Side (8-3) came away with a 2-1 victory over the Titans(5-7) in Bellevue, Sunday afternoon.
Ducks’ starter, Brian Strom pitched five innings for the victory, scattering 7 hits, striking out 7, and recording his league-leading seventh hit batter. He also smashed his head against the fence after a diving attempt at a foul ball down the right field line in the 7th. He returned to the game.
Anthony Ciccone recorded the 2-inning save.
Culp and Ciccone had RBI for the Ducks.
Both starting pitchers pitched out of trouble all game, and there was solid defense from both sides.
Donnie had a sweet base hit in the fifth. Limbach also singled. Culp doubled in the game winning run in the first. We thought we lost Riley for while in the sixth.
The game ended on a deep fly out to left field that RBI Collector, Matt Swetz, misjudged initially before making a heart stopping, backpedaling, tumbling catch to seal the victory.
I’m surprised the Titans don’t have a better record.
The Lions beat the WOLFPACK!!! 7-4 last week, and due to technical difficulties, the game hasn’t been updated in the standings as of Friday night.
Here is an episode of Thundercats in Spanish.
Theme song should be someone on the Lions’ walkup music.
Your South Oakland Ducks are tied for first at 7-3. However, West View currently holds the head to head tie breaker. We’re also only up one in the loss column on the Bombers and Lions. Should be a good race down the stretch.
The Ducks play next vs. the Titans (5-6). This Sunday, 1pm in Bellevue.
South Oakland (7-3) had a man on third with one out in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t get the run across, in a tough loss to West View. West View (7-2) is now in sole possession of first place.
The WOLFPACK!!! took a 2-0 lead in the sixth. An error, a hit batter and a single lead to the first run. He was safe, but it was close. The next batter walked, followed by a bases loaded force out at home on a shallow fly to center. He was out by three steps. The WOLFPACK!!! drove in another run on a fielder’s choice.
The Ducks scored in the bottom of the sixth, on an RBI groundout by Ciccone.
***
etc:
I thought for sure we were going to get rained out. It didn’t rain at all at Springview.
This was a great game by both sides, I can’t wait to beat that team in the playoffs.
That third baseman was good defensively, and their pitcher was one of the better guys we faced this season.
On four separate occasions, players slid into first.
Did you have kid on your high school or college team who could play a little but was such a head case he either quit for some imagined slight (blamed “politics,” of course), and then spent all his time eating weird drugs at shady after hours clubs in Philly, or maybe he was cut because his dad got in a fist fight with the coach or an ump, and it was too much trouble to deal with him? I knew some kids like that, growing up.
Fetter allowed 2 hits over six innings.
Jones struck out the side in the top of the seventh, including (I think) the sub who went in for one of their players who hurt himself sliding into first.
Casale, Galvanek, Swetz and Moore all had hits for the Ducks. Gwin was hit by a pitch and walked twice.
Galvanek picked off two runners in one inning. One guy off of second, one off first. He’s probably been our best player since hockey season ended, allowing him to make all the games.
I’d like to thank everyone who came out and watched, despite the flash flood and hail warnings.
The single A teams that moved up are getting massacred. The Pirates are surprisingly bad so far, and the Express off to a solid start. Other than that, it’s about as expected. West End apparently won’t play in April. Good luck with the pitching down the stretch when you have 4 games a week.
Standings as of May 23rd. Look at some of those run differentials. Jesus.
Ashely Shaffer Kia of Northern West Virginia (6-0) is undefeated, and has only played one close game, a 3-2 win over the Black Sox (5-2).
The Cherokee are once again dominating the regular season. I predict a 22-2 record before their annual playoff letdown. At least a bunch of those guys still have a 2010 title to their credit.
Such an odd mix of fonts between the hat, jersey, and lettering on the picture.
The Bulldogs Blog was off to a decent start, but has been quiet lately. They’ve had Christmas pictures up for the last 3 weeks. I can’t figure out how to link their site in our blogroll, or even where our blogroll is or how to make it visible. Sorry, guys.
18A
Standings as of May 23rd.
The Warriors are off to a slow start but I expect them to pick it up.
They were missing some guys when we played them earlier this week. They also have Starting Lineup figures made for their team.
The Senators managed to beat the Bombers 3-2 last week.
The Lions and Monsters, I assume, lack pitching depth given some of the scores of double headers they’ve played in.
The Titans score about 5 runs a game and allow just under 7. When we play them, it may look like a football score. They took 3 of 4 from the monsters, but have lost to the senators and warriors. Kerry Collins is my favorite Titan.
Before they were the WOLFPACK!!!
they were the Matadors
and the sharks
That one side-arm pitcher was on our team for half a season. Effectively wild.
The Matadors were part of a ridiculous scandal involving an attempt to bribe the Owlz into forfeiting a game so the Bulldogs would miss the playoffs. Matador management was certain the Commish was out to get them, but I don’t think that guy runs the team anymore.
There was some bullshit involving the Sharks one year and some other team, but I forget what it was exactly. Maybe the Hurricanes were involved.
We play them Wednesday at our place. We need to get some Ducks fans in the seats that night. Tell people we have the bathroom key now. That may help.
Your South Oakland Ducks (7-2) are in first place. The team has come together pretty well. Nothing helps chemistry like winning. If our pitchers keep throwing strikes, we should remain competitive. We will see how we handle a stretch in July when we have like 8 games in two weeks.
Iceberg will give us some innings at some point.
I’m still waiting for Culp, Swetz and Faust to be added to the league site so I can get their stats in. So far our stats are pretty good.
Strom has hit six batters in 21 innings pitched.
Also:
This site outlines how to build your own bobble head doll.
I think we should get stirrups.
It was great when people used to leave comments after these posts.
Monday’s 5-4 win was big. Both teams played well, there weren’t many walks or errors. The game took like fifteen minutes. I can’t remember the last time the Ducks made a late-inning rally like this one.
***
For five innings the Bombers got key hits, and South Oakland left runners on base. We had a guy thrown out at home, left the bases loaded once and twice had two men on with less than two outs and couldn’t get a run in.
No one thought the Bombers had the balls to play in purple unitards and white tights.
The Bombers Pitcher located, and took advantage of the way-outside strike that ump likes to call. There’s no reason to throw it over the plate with that ump.
In the first inning, the Bombers scored on a two-out infield single followed by a double that died in the grass in shallow right.
Allegheny added another run in the third, and two more in the fifth on a couple hard hit balls combined with some defensive miscues.
It looked like the wheels might fall off, but Ciccone pulled it together and we stiffened up defensively.
The Ducks trailed 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth and started the inning with a leadoff double by Casale and three straight singles to make the score 4-2. After a walk, Iceberg singled to make the score 4-3.
The Bombers forced out a runner at the plate. Then with the bases loaded, Ben Hartranft hit a slow chopper to short, the Bombers forced a runner at second, but Hartranft beat the arrant throw to first. The first baseman missed the ball, and another run scored.
In the top of the seventh, Jason Fetter walked the first batter, then turned a double play on a line drive right at his head.
I’m not saying a couple guys on the Bombers don’t look like Ted Kaczynski
The game ended on a groundout.
Hartranft has 4 RBI in five games without getting a hit.
The Ducks have won three straight.
Pending Tornados, we play tonight at 6:15 in Etna vs. the Warriors.
The Senators jumped out to an early lead after Joseph McCarthy led off the game with a double, stole third, exploited America’s fear of communism, and scored on a fielder’s choice.
In the bottom of the first, after a single and two walks loaded the bases, Brandon Culp struck a blow for America and took Jesse Helms deep.
The Ducks scored another run in the inning on Bob Faust’s fielder’s choice.
5-1 Ducks after 1.
The Senators kept the game close for an inning, when they added two runs in the second off an error on a potential double play ball hit by Rick Santorum.
Santorum supports the above slogan.
The score remained 5-3 until the bottom of the third when South Oakland blew it open.
Iceberg doubled off the wall to start the inning, Dover singled the Ducks’ catcher to third then Faust walked, and Sorosky singled in a run to put the Ducks up 6-3. Gwin walked to load the bases with 2 outs for Ciccone who hit the Ducks’ second grand slam of the game and chased starting pitcher Ted Kennedy.
10-3 Ducks after 3.
Riley made a diving catch in right in the fourth, then got lost on his way to center field in the fifth. Dorsek played an inning without his hat for some reason then pinch ran. Fetter threw a six-pitch inning in relief.
Alexander Daigle made an appearance. The Senators scored two more to make it 10-5 after 5.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Ducks added three insurance runs on a double, two singles, an error, and a sac fly.
Ciccone retired the side in the seventh to end the game.
There was pizza and beer.
Misc:
Lost in all the grand slamming was a solid outing by TC, and a pretty clean game by our starting defense.
Our smaller home field may have helped with one of the home runs, but it also kept a few really hard hit balls in the gap to singles. It’s also not very easy to see at the plate.
The strike zone has been really wide all year.
Swetz only hits with runners on base. Our three through seven hitters had the following stats:
Ciccone: 2 for 3, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI
Culp: 2 for 4, HR, 2SB, 5 RBI
Swetz: 0 for 4, RE, R, 0 LOB
Galvanek: 3 for 4, 2B, SB, RBI
Dover: 3 for 3, 2B, SF, RBI
If our two hitter would get on base more, we’d be in even better shape.
Bad News for the Senators
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 