The Duck Pond is retired. The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side will not have a home field this season. I’ll miss it, but not really. bad hops on that field allowed me to hit over .400 for six of the last seven seasons and Spring View was host to some of the most dominating pitching performances in Ducks history. Hopefully i’ll have time to give it a proper send off at some point. I’m sure we’ll get a random rainout game scheduled there. the Ducks can’t thank the league enough for working with us to help keep the team swimming, and allow me to reuse all the sweet Baconator photoshops from a couple years ago. The Black Sox almost became the team to beat this season…
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The TJ Morgan lead-South Oakland Ducks will open the season this Saturday 4/13
South Oakland opens the 2012 postseason against the Monroeville Militia Sunday July 22nd, 8:30pm at Moore Park.
The All-Star starters are up on the league home page.
Interesting how last-place Cranberry has 4 starters compared to the Ducks and Black Sox who have one apiece.
From our team I nominated Fago, Ken Cool, Morgan and Swartwout. Who will represent us at the all-star game in August if they choose.
Cases could be made for Houseman and me based on the numbers and Houseman being sick at fielding. But i’m not about to vote for myself, certainly not to start over whatever low-A prospect Clinton has in left field, and for some reason I thought Elliot was in our division and Wes White was a more deserving starter at SS. Sorry, House, for not knowing what teams are in our division.
I think we need a return to the mid-season all-star game next year so people actually show up. That was a lot of fun a couple years back, despite coach Kenny Powers not getting me an at-bat.
Apparently the Rebels and Warriors game last week ended in a fight with police called.
I forget the details. Hopefully they meet in the A championship and it’s really intense.
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The Ducks Elliot game will not be rescheduled. We tried, but the weather and field availability worked against us. I would’ve liked to get some at bats before sunday.
Anyway…
After a brutal off-season and losing pitchers upon pitchers for a variety of reasons, the Ducks finished the regular season 11-10-2 and 8-4 in the division.
Good for fourth overall and second in the Monongahela.
We will be the home team on Sunday.
If I had known the 2-seeds were going to switch brackets, it would have been a lot tougher to release Stupka to the Militia. Ethically I made the right decision.
If both teams have everyone show up on Sunday night, it’s going to be a great game.
South Oakland of the North Side beat the Clinton Cherokee 12 – 7 Monday night to take first place in the Monongahela Division.
I wonder what was discussed in the huddles over there? the pre-game talk, two (I think) during the game, and the post-game speech by Clinton’s manager. Probably either the hollow, “we can’t take this team lightly.” Even though it was clear we were taken lightly, or “There’s no way we should lose to this team, they’re horrible. Look at our pants and look at their pants the don’t all match. I love our uniforms they are so sick!”
Or not. I mean, i could be way off base, but whatever their coach was trying to get accross it didn’t take.
Immediately the game had a weird feel to it.The city actualy fixed the lights and dragged the field.
Ducks catcher Ken Cool threw out a runner to end the first. Clinton led 1-0.
In the bottom of the first, Ducks firstbaseman Bobby Swartwout hit a two-run home run and South Oakland wouldn’t trail for the rest of the game.
The Baumgartel/Fago duel started with Baum almost Baconating one to right center, but Roberts made a tough catch at the track.
We scored a run in the second.
Fago picked off a guy at first.
Jesse Ferko and TJ Morgan started hitting doubles.
We had the bases loaded with 1 out in the third, and got one run across.
after three: Ducks 4, Clinton 1.
Then we scored five in the fourth.
Morgan led off with a double Ferko walked, and Roberts bunted for a baseh hit.
Doyle was pulled.
It gets blurry for me at this point. This game was the best the offense has looked all season.
Tessyier came into the game on short rest.
Casale and Houseman came through with back to back singles.
Ken Cool lined out to the wall in left, Gwin flew out to right and Swartwout drove in another run with, I think, a double.
9 – 1, Ducks after four.
the game was stopped to acknowledge Morgan’s first three-hit game as a Duck.
Clinton scored four in the top of the fifth. Baumgartel walked, I threw a ball backwards, there were a couple walks, but we worked out of it. Lead preserved.
9-5, Ducks through four-and-a-half.
In the bottom of the fifth Gwin lead off with a double, Swartwout reached on an error when Gwin was caught in a rundown and pegged in the back. Fago reached on an error. Jesse Ferko hit a bases clearing triple.
South Oakland led 12-5 after five. Fago retired the side in order in the sixth getting Baumgartel to groundout to end their individual battle for the evening.
They put some other kid in to pitch the sixth, he was effective.
The Cherokee scored two in the seventh but the Ducks held on for a five run victory.
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From what Ken Cool tells me, the Cherokee coach still gives us no credit for putting 12 runs across in this game, and taking advantage of the numerous, uncharacteristic Clinton miscues.
They may not have given us their best, but that has nothing to do with us.
I don’t have the book, but I think six Ducks starters had multiple hits in this game, Ferko, Morgan and Houseman each had 3.
We have three non-division games before we play the Black Sox on the 23rd.
Ducks pitcher Robert Patton (2-0) earned his second straight victory, allowing 1 ER over five innings, to lead South Oakland of the North Side (5-1, 6-5-2) past Cranberry (1-3, 4-8) Saturday afternoon.
Cranberry scored a run early with a two out rally in the bottom of the first on a walk and two singles. South Oakland took the lead in the third when with two out, Guthrie singled, Ken Cool was hit by a pitch, and a past ball moved the runners to second and third. Gwin singled in Ken Cool and Guthrie to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth, South Oakland scored two more runs on an almost identical series of events. Guthrie walked with two outs. Ken Cool singled and Guthrie advance to third. Ken Cool stole second and Gwin singled in Guthrie and Ken Cool to put the Ducks up 4-1.
Cranberry made it interesting with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth, the inning ended when Fago threw out a guy trying to steal second.
In the sixth, with runners on first and second and no body out, Ducks first baseman Bobby Swartwout threw out a Cranberry runner at third on a botched sacrifice attempt, then made a nice over the shoulder catch on a pop-up and doubled off the guy at first to end the inning.
Cranberry stranded runners on second and third to end the game.
Ducks outfielder TJ Morgan went 3-for-3 on the day.
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Earlier in the year we were letting leads slip away into ties, and ridiculous 11-10 losses. It’s good to hold on and win tight games.
Yesterday the Black Sox dropped both games to Clinton, and fell to 0-4 in the division, with another game against the 3-1 Cherokee today at 3pm.
With the Black Sox at 0-4, and Cranberry at 1-3 and those two teams still facing each other three more times, we’ve almost clinched a playoff spot.
I’m really surprised to see Kenny Powers and Brookline in last place.
South Oakland plays Elliot Monday night at 9pm before a huge game against the Cherokee Wednesday night at home with first place on the line.
Paul Emig (1-o-1) earned his first win as a Duck since 2007, allowing 2 runs over 4 innings, to help South Oakland (1-0, 2-4-2) open divisional play with a 7 – 3 win over Cranberry (0-1, 2-5).
Trailing 2-0 in the top of the fifth, Fetter led off the inning with a double, followed by four singles by Roberts, Emig, Ken Cool, and Gwin to put South Oakland up 3-2. With two out in the inning, Swartwout doubled in Ken Cool to give the Ducks a 4-2 lead.
In the Sixth Fetter singled to lead off the inning, and advanced to third on a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice (not sure in which order, the book is a mess). Fetter would score on an overthrow back to the pitcher.
In the seventh, Ken Cool and Gwin hit back to back singles to start the inning, Ken Cool scored on Swartwout’s second double of the game, Gwin scored on an rbi groundout by Houseman.
In the bottom of the 6th, TJ Morgan and Houseman teamed up to throw a guy out at third attempting to stretch a double into a triple.
Fetter may have picked up a three-inning save, allowing 1 unearned run in relief. Not sure if that’s possible.
We really needed this one.
South Oakland will face the Black Sox wed night, 9pm at SpringView Field.
The Militia are primarily a combination of two storied PGH NABA Franchises: The Gray Bats, and the Original Rebels – The Rebels formed when the Black Sox split in ’07.
A handful of Militia players also played for the old Knights/Orioles franchise, their Manager, PGH NABA Legend John Tremel played on the Warriors for a season, their best player of all time, Jeremy Barchie, was a Duck for half a season. They also have a Hurricane defector from last season, and a player from the old Phantoms.
Kenny Powers says fuck the Rebels.
Aside from the Kenny Power’s Black Sox, and Craig Boley’s Warriors none of those other teams exist anymore – the Gray Bats went out in a flutter after one season.
While the Sox and Warriors are two of the Original 3 teams still in existence, they existed in 2003 as the Stampeders and Piranhas – respectively. (The Ducks, Maulers and Arthropods also played in ’03. Yeah, we had a team called the Arthropods in our league, once.)
The South Oakland Ducks is the only franchise that’s been around since 2003 with the same name. We just won’t die.
We’ve absorbed players from the ’08, and ’09 Championship teams (OwlzZzzz, Hurricanes) and still have a core of hold overs from our Championship team of 2010 (when we beat the Militia to advance to the championship) , and our team that reached the 2011 Finals.
The ’07, ’08 and ’09 Champions have all folded. That’s odd. You’d think winning a title would make a guys want to stay together and build on that success. Additionally the ’06 and ’07 runner ups (Colonials and Matadors) have folded.
Gone are the Oilers and Sharks.
Guthrie and Fago played on the old Knights at one point, so on Sunday we have multiple grudge matches of former teammates.
We should all be proud to wear Green this season (preferably green, but whatever color you have is fine since our uni’s aren’t in yet).
Pending weather, the Cherokee, and Black Sox open up today – it’ll be interesting to see how they fare.
If I had a choice to have Fago up with the bases loaded, down by 2 runs in the bottom of the seventh every game, I’d take it.
Ken Cool and several other Ducks will make their 2012 debut on Sunday
No idea how or why this blog post degenerated into this.
Our team is full of players who know how to win.We’re coming together, but we need to go on a run (one game at a time, obviously).
Let’s get two on Sunday and get some momentum going before we get into league play next weekend.
The Michigan Militia and other extremist groups operate under principles formed by the misinterpretation of pieces of our Constitution that have been taken out of context. They think they know what’s best for our country.
But Captain America knows better, and he’s on our side.
After an opening day shutout of the South Side Eagles, the Shaler Rebels have dropped two straight to fall to 1-2 on the season, good for fifth place in the A division, but only 1.5 games behind the first place Titans, who I think are also from the Shaler area.
We’re still awaiting word on who or what the Rebels are rebelling from.
Expect a bloodbath when Shaler takes on the Senators Wednesday night.
We still remember the help the Eagles gave us early last year, but South Oakland’s pick to win the A division is the Warriors depending on Craig Boley’s status.
Elliot pitcher, Stu Barnes carried a no hitter through 6 and 1/3 innings, and went 2 for 3 with a double and a triple to lead defending champion Elliot (1-0) past South Oakland (0-1) Wednesday night.
The game was scoreless through three, and then a few balls that should have been caught weren’t and Elliot scored 7 runs.
Jesse Ferko and Chris Roth had hits for the Ducks. Roth drove in the Ducks only run in the top of the seventh on an infield single.
We’ll round into form by divisional play, if not sooner.
Despite the loss, spirits remain high in South Oakland as the team looks to rebound against the Bulldogs Saturday morning.
We’re in a division with the Cherokee, Black Sox, and Cranberry.
I’m pretty sure only the top tree in each division make the playoffs.
I’m not sure if it’s based solely on division record, or if it’s overall record or what.
Barring the inevitable rain, we will play the bulldogs twice and then a double header against the Militia to round out five games in the first eleven days of the season.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 