One more hit and one less error, that’s been the story in four of the Ducks losses, which have been by three runs or less. The Ducks (3-6-1) season hangs precariously on the brink of irrelevance after a tough loss to their inter-division rival, The Warriors (6-2).

For the second time in two games, the Ducks brought the tying run to the plate in the late innings, only to come up short. Early on, the game was a small-ball contest, both teams sacrificed, stole bases, and played solid station-to-station baseball. Mark Guthrie gave the Ducks a 1-0 lead, in the bottom of the first, when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the first inning.
The Warriors took a 2-1 the lead in the top of the third on one of four Ducks’ errors. South Oakland evened the score in their half of the inning on a double steal, run-and-hit, when Guthrie drove in Ryan Novak.
Then Warriors’ catcher Craig Boley made an appearance, footage below.

The Ducks gave the Warriors two more runs on a botched pick-off attempt at second base, and the Warriors lead 4-2.

In the bottom of the fifth it looked as though the Ducks had figured out Warriors’ stater, Overbaugh. Gwin lead off the inning with a ground rule double, when his shot to the wall lodged in the fence, it was almost the first triple in the history of Spring View Field. Then Ducks’ catcher Jesse Smith hit a 2-0 fastball over the fence into some lucky family’s backyard, but that would be all for the Ducks that inning. Going into the top of the sixth the game was tied 4-4.

Homa had pitched a solid game to that point, allowing only two earned runs, he must have thrown about 90 pitches, if the Ducks had made a few plays behind him 90 pitches might have been enough to finish off the game. On this night, it was not enough. The Warriors opened the inning with four straight ground ball hits, and Boley’s line-drive single off the fence. That was enough for Homa, who was pulled with the Ducks trailing 5-4. Mark Guthrie relieved Homa, and after allowing a single, before he induced a 9-2 double play fly-out to Chris Wojoton. 6-4 Warriors with two outs. Then a dying line drive to center, off the bat of Steve Heckman, barely escaped Eric Lee’s diving grasp, and plated two more Warriors.
The stage was set for another Ducks’ comeback, but it slipped through their feathers in a series of base running miscues. Eric Lee lead off the inning with a single, then Garret Moore moved Lee to third when he reached on an error. TC “Buttermaker” Jones added a pinch hit RBI, on a fielder’s choice. Moore advanced to second, TC was out. Then KT Murphy, added his second hit of the game, and infield hit to deep short. Instead of having the top of the order up with one out and runners on first and third, Moore tried to score from second on the play and was out by a step. Then Chris Wojoton walked, and with two outs, Gwin worked the count full, the lead runner did not take off with the pitch, and did not score when Gwin singled to left.
The Ducks trailed 8-5 with the bases loaded, and the inning ended with a blistering ground-out to short. two feet to the left and it’s a one run game. So it goes. The Ducks would not threaten in the seventh.

Along with Brent Heintzelman’s solid 2-3 performance at the plate, Boley was the only Warrior to really hit Homa hard, going 3-3 with a double and a single off the wall . Steve Heckman went 3-4 and only hit one ball out of the infield, a single to center, he has the keen ability to use his mind to put a certain spin on the ball which results in the perfect swinging bunt, he also bunted for a base hit. He hustled, he beat a couple throws by half a step.
see the Warriors-biased recap of this game at Steveheckmanonline.com

Bullet Points

• We can beat any team in the league.
• Our next three games are against the Rebels, Hurricanes, and Bulldogs, they have a combined three wins as of today.
• The Rebels game this Sunday is a must win.
• As a catcher there is no greater feeling than being run-over, and holding on to the ball, Jesse made such a play for the second half of a key double play, after hitting a 2-run bomb earlier in the game.
• With Lee and Wojoton out there, we have two of the best arms in the same OF in the league.
• The Ducks have already tied last year’s team HR mark, with 3: One apiece from J.Smith, Wojoton, and Novak. Last year it was Oliver with 2, and I think Rick had one.
• I love chewing tobacco….318 and rising.
• The Ducks’ second base rotunda continues to whirl.
• KT has reached base safely in five straight AB’s.
• There are some teams in this league which I despise, the Warriors are not one of them. This game was up for grabs the whole way, and they made one less error, and had a slew of infield hits. They didn’t pull any cheap stuff either. It was smart baseball all around, aside from a couple key errors.
• If I were Homa I’d be pretty frustrated after this one. Again, he did his job and put us in position to win.
• Jim From CMU hit a solid line drive right at the second baseman fro a double play, if that one gets through maybe the wheels fly off the Warriors in the third, that’s bad luck. That’s baseball. Jim is a solid clubhouse guy, who takes a very logical approach at the plate.
• At least Garrett was on base to make the ill-advised attempt at home plate, 80% of the teams in this league throw that ball away, Baker, and Boley made the play.
• Garrett’s base running error was bad, but it was an aggressive mistake, not a bad one to make early in the game, but we, as a team, have to do a better job of knowing situations.
• I make base running mistakes too. I was playing in the NABA World Series in 2005, bases loaded, no outs, I was on second. hard grounder to third, the guy throws to second for one, and the double play is turned, I kept running and was thrown out at home for the third out of a 5-4-3-2 triple play. I killed that rally.
• Congrats on Craig Boley, who is getting married
• Congrats to Heckman and Lesher, on their pending Civil Union…Balls deep indeed.
• MMMMMAAH.

We have five days off until we play the Rebels. I will post probably every day this week. We can not lose this game on Sunday, the state of the Union depends on it.

Jefferson Davis; Rebel leader, racist.

This video worked last time.

Also, how does everyone feel about calling TC, “Buttermaker” ala the coach from The Bad News Bears?

Note: I had the 3,000th hit on the Ducks NABA home page.

Tonight it’s gonna be bad news for the Warriors.

This video is not for little kids, Mormons, or people easily offended by profanity.

That’s about how it feels right now.

In what has become typical Ducks’ fashion, South Oakland spotted the opposition a seven-run lead, then put up a furious rally in the game’s dying moments. The Ducks brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the seventh, but on this night, it was not to be.

The Ducks led 1-0 going into the bottom of the first, then the Eagles scored eight straight runs. Trailing 8-1 in the top of the fifth, South Oakland cut the lead to five when Gwin singled ahead of McCray’s walk, then on a well executed double steal, the Eagles’ catcher threw the ball into left field allowing Gwin to score, and McCray to advance to third. On the next pitch the Eagles would balk McCray home.

Trailing 8-3 going into the bottom of the sixth Ducks’ reliever, Smith, after throwing two scoreless innings, had two outs with two runners on, when a somewhat routine fly-ball to right field allowed two Eagles to score. The ball dropped and the Ducks’ right fielder chose to watch the runners instead of throwing the ball to the infield, then he blamed the infielders for not telling him what to do.

I wouldn’t throw that guy under the bus if he didn’t try to blame his teammates for the two runs that scored while he stood around demanding the ball be called foul. I was playing first and I ran out to make a play when it dropped in front of him, I said to him, “CUT FOUR”. I suppose there was a miscommunication. Everyone makes errors, be they mental or physical, but it takes a certain kind of person to blame someone else for their own misreading of a pop-up and not quickly getting the ball into the infield.

He somewhat atoned for this blunder with a single in the top of the seventh.

It was not because of one play or one player that we lost this game. The little things continue to eat us alive.

The late comeback was frantic, the Ducks torched the Eagles’ bullpen for four runs in the seventh, but came up inches short when a would be double skipped foul, before the game ended in a deflating 1-6-3 double play. The inning started when Les Geis (sp.) drew a walk, followed by a single, and a fielders’ choice by Jim From CMU. KT Murphy reached base via walk for the third time in the game, then Wojoton delivered with an RBI single. Gwin walked, then Jesse followed with an RBI single of his own. Then just like that, it was over.

The first three innings were filled with booted grounders, and bat at-bats, for the Ducks.
I don’t think we’ve played a game this year with our best starting infield. (our starting second baseman hasn’t shown up since the third game of the year).

The baseball always seems to find the guy who doesn’t want it, never fails. The outfield was uncharacteristically, fundamentally terrible, except for Wojoton’s 8-3 double play in the sixth.

Bullet points

• We’ve got fifteen games left, I don’t know if that’s a lot or not. The rest of the division has approximately three games-at-hand on us, and it will be hard to gage where we stand until some games get made up and the games-played get squared.
• 3-5-1 is an ugly record, and I mean ascetically as well as in terms of personifying our under-achievement.
• We are much better than we were last year.
• We have to start playing in the first inning, not the fifth.
• I’ve grown weary of alluding to our absent players, I feel as though it takes away from the guys who show up. Still, we played without both our home run and batting average leaders; the two of whom are the starting left-side of our infield.
• We don’t need to hit the panic button, but we have to put a few together before July rolls around and slams us in the balls with a 6-10-2 record.
• Rick played hurt tonight.
• Smith rebounded from a rough start against the OweleZ. He held the Eagles to two runs over three innings, and gave us a chance to pull another one from the jaws of defeat.
• It seems as if we’ve played the whole season tip-toeing around the jaws of defeat.
• Jesse threw out six guys and no one could hold onto the ball, he also had a clutch hit in the seventh.
• KT was on base every time I turned around.
• Jim the mysterious pitcher from CMU will fit in nicely, he plays a mean game of pepper, and he hustles.
• I have as many walks through nine games as I did last season.
• There were many broken bats.
• Where are you, Brett and Chris?

click here for hilarity

Quack, quack

The Ducks (3-4-1) have a road game against the Eagles (4-3) Thursday at 9pm, at Moore Park in Brookline. A win vaults the Ducks into a tie for third place in the division and gives them a 2-0 record against the Eagles, assuring South Oakland of the first tie-breaker against a tough division opponent.

The Ducks beat the Eagles 4-3 on Garrett Moore’s walk-off single, for their first win of the season. That win is the Ducks only division win thus far, South oakland is 1-3 in division play.

“It’s been a long night, and I hate the fucking Eagles, man“
-J.L.

Ted Williams, the greatest hitter of all-time, coached the Washington Senators after his playing days were over.

“Pepper is a great warmup game for any hitter, and as a coach I’m going to insist the Senators do more of it“
-Ted Williams

Also, Barry Pepper played Roger Maris in the film 61*

In an unrelated note; there is no excuse for the “Owlz” using a “z” in their name. take a peek at their team page, try not to vomit.

Inspiration.

Ducks 8, Matadors 7

This is the kind of win that can change the course of a season.

The Matadors scored seven runs in the first two innings. Ducks’ starter Nick Homa (2-1) was struggling with his command, and the South Oakland infield looked shaky, committing key errors, forcing Homa to throw too many pitches to work out of bases-loaded jams in the first and second.
Entering the bottom of the sixth inning, South Oakland trailed 7-0 and had recorded only one hit, an infield single. Going back to the bottom of the first inning of Sunday’s loss to the Owls, the Ducks had been outscored 24-0 over the last nine innings, and at 2-4-1, they were swimming on the fringe of the playoff picture.
For five innings, it seemed as though everything the Ducks hit went to the Matadors’ shortstop, who played like Troy Tulowitzki. Homa had settled down, and was lights-out after the second inning. No more than 3 of the Matadors’ runs were earned. The Ducks were poised to waste another solid performance, but this time there were no excuses, we had almost all of our regulars in the starting lineup, and we were getting handled by a finesse pitcher and an NL rookie of the year shortstop.
Then it started, it started slowly when Coby was hit by a pitch, then Wojoton was beaned, and Guthrie singled. Ryan Novak drew a bases loaded walk to drive in the first Ducks run, and that was it for the Matadors’ starting pitcher.
Just when the Ducks were liking their chops at the chance to face the Matadors starter for the third time, Tulowitzki came into pitch and the infield was shuffled. Troy was throwing noticeably faster than the starter. Jesse Smith welcomed him with a marathon at-bat, fouling off twelve pitches and working the count full before drawing another bases loaded walk, cutting the lead to 7-2, bases still loaded.

Ben Gwin was 1-13 with 2 RBI heading into the game; the worst slump of his baseball existence, earlier in the game he’s made an error at first which lead to two unearned runs, he had grounded out weakly in two earlier at-bats, five innings and nothing more than a broken bat for his efforts.

Redemption came in a three-run double to right center. 7-5. Tulowitzki would load the bases on a walk and a hit-batsman, but worked out of the jam by getting CF, Eric Lee to pop-up, and striking out two Ducks. He hadn’t seen the last of Eric Lee.

The top of the seventh came and went with a walk, a double play, and a strike-out.
Chris Wojoton lead off the Ducks’ half of the inning with an infield hit to deep short, Tulowitzki maybe makes that play, but Chris booked to first, barely beating the throw. Guthrie was hit by a pitch, bringing the winning run to the plate. After a fly-out, and a questionable called third strike, the Ducks were down to their final out.
Gwin came through again, singling to center, driving in Wojoton. Eric Tans drew a walk to load the bases, and Eric Lee came to the plate.
Down by one bases loaded, two outs, Eric Lee was a super hero.
The Play of the Game:
Lee smashed one to the right side the ball hit off the Matadors’ first baseman and dribbled into shallow right field, Guthrie scored to tie the Game and Gwin raced around from second to score the winning run.

Comeback complete.

WOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!

Bullet Points:

The Ducks are eager to get the foul taste out of their mouths after a historically bad 15-run loss to the Owls on Sunday. With almost 1/3 of the season in the books, and a scarcity of rain dates, every game has playoff implications in the highly contested Monongahela Division. South Oakland will look to fire-baller Nick Homa, and the infusion of Ducks starters who were unable to compete in Sunday’s game, to stop the losing streak before it starts.

Last season the Matadors beat the Ducks on a seventh inning home run to eliminate South Oakland from playoff contention. That might mean something to the five returning players from last year.

Either way, it’s gonna be bad news for the Matadors.

The Ducks have finally started hitting. All but two South Oakland players recorded base hits, and the Ducks overwhelmed the undermanned Phantoms at Pie Traynor field, 7-3, to raise their record to 2-3-1.

For the second consecutive game, South Oakland’s slow-starting offense has posted seven runs. Coach Jones knocked in his first RBI of the season, and Garrett Moore, Mark Guthrie, and Andrew McCray added extra base hits, to back up Guthrie’s solid performance on the mound.
Guthrie (1-0-1)scattered six hits and surrendered two earned runs over five innings.
Nick Homa pitched two scoreless innings in relief for his first save of the season.

The Ducks travel to the Findlay Sports Complex. To play the expansion Owls today, at 3pm. A win would put the Ducks at .500 and move the team into 3rd place in the Monongahela division.
I know little about the Owls and nothing about the Findlay field.

The Owls (2-2) screeched past the Rebels 14-9, yesterday. Knowing the Rebels, I bet they set their rotation to have their ace going against the BlackSox today, still the Owls had 18 hits.
I found this on America’s most reputable news source

Supposedly wise, Owls live in barns, and eat rodents.
Number 13 might be coming down from the rafters today, either way, it’s gonna be bad news for the Owls.

Bullet points

• Momentum, keep it going, build on it.
• McCray hit a Gibsonian shot off the wall in center, 418 feet away
• This was the most complete effort of the season
• showing up is 80% of Pittsburgh NABA baseball
• We still haven’t had all our starters at a ganme at the same time, this has allowed coach Jones to get a look at everyone, and get everyone playing time.
• Last game marked the end of Gwin’s 108 consecutive games played streak.
• the Monongahela Division is Log Jammin’ right now, it’s going to be a battle all season.

___7_______________7____________

Chris Wojoton went 3-4 including a double, a home run, a single and a walk against his former team, and Eric Tans hit the game tying single in the bottom of the seventh to cap a frantic comeback by the South Oakland Ducks(1-3-1).
The Ducks played the game without their starting center fielder, right fielder, DH, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, and catcher. Rick’s biceps didn’t show up, which moved South Oakland’s starting first baseman behind the plate.

Faced with a depleted roster, Coach Jones had his work cut out for him.

As painful as it was, the reality is the glass is half full for the Ducks after the tie. South Oakland erased Phantom leads of 2-0, 3-2, and 7-3. The Ducks equaled the offensive output of the prior three games by scoring seven last night.
Smith (0-2) pitched six strong innings, allowing three earned runs. Mark, “Last thoughts on Woody” Guthrie pitched two shutout inning in relief.
The Ducks trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the first when Ryan Novak (lower left) hit a 2-run home run to tie the game, driving in Chris Wojoton.
After the Phantoms scored in the top of the third, Wojoton hit a solo HR in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 3-3. Gwin threw out a guy stealing third by ten feet thanks to the tag by Wojoton, who played a strong game at third where he was filling in for Guthrie, who was filling in for Eric Lee in center field.
In the top of the fourth, the Phantoms scored four runs on two hits, two walks and two errors, they would score again.
It was 7-3 going into the bottom of the fourth. South Oakland scored one in the bottom of the fourth, two in the bottom of the fifth, and one in the bottom of the seventh to scratch out a 7-7 tie.

Bullet points

• Garrett Moore played a solid right field, he was 2-4, with an RBI, reached on an error, stole a base and was generally disruptive on the base paths. Speed kills.
• Eric Tans had a great night at the plate, he doubled and singled in the tying run.
• The Ducks are undefeated since KT switched to gray pants.
• This is the kind of game we lost last year.
• Novak and Wojo were huge last night.
• Most of the runs we gave up were a result of guys playing out of position. Thank you, to everyone who showed up. Even Coby and Kirk Gibson, who arrived in the 5th after they spent the evening ice-sculpting for under-privileged children in Slippery Rock, came out to support their teammates.
• Ben Gwin needs to start hitting like Ben Gwin can hit; he is 1-12 so far this season. Since we went to wood bats, he’s hit .485 and .493 in the past two seasons. Even taking into consideration favorable bookkeeping, he is doing poorly by his own standards. Ben Gwin will start hitting.
• On Sunday I was reading my 9-month old daughter Tolstoy, she just kept saying “Da-Da-Da-Da, Baaaaa-WEEEE”, and then turned her attention to her book, “Animal Babies” which is a small 12 page cardboard book with pictures of baby animals. The hitting analogy is in there somewhere; instead of trying to write ten-line sentences about a wisp of smoke blowing over the Russian countryside, I should simplify things ie, “I have a bill, feathers and webbed feet, what animal am I?” At least I showed up and caught. I catch a good game for an outfielder.
• If anyone is weary of my voice, and the inevitable Ben-centric semi-rants that pop up in this blog let me know and I will send you the admin. information and you can post stuff as well.
• I’ll buy a drink for the first person to “edit” the Blacksox wikipedia page.
• Smith and Guthrie both pitched well, do they both get a “no decision”?
• that field umpire is hilarious, his presence and entertainment value just barely compensate for the missed calls. Rumor has it, he studied under this guy…
  
• I wonder if we’ll finish this game on Saturday before we play the Phantoms again.
• It’s nice that the Pens’ game won’t interfere with our game on Saturday, or vice-versa.
• Our first rundown went horribly wrong.
• We’re entering a stretch of five games in nine days including two important division games against the Eagles and Owls respectively. During this stretch we will discover the true fabric of our pitching depth.

Craig Boley and Doug Ryba (above) led the Warriors to a 3-2 victory over the Rakers last night. With the loss the Rakers are now 1-2, just 1/2 game ahead of the Ducks for the third and final playoff spot in the Monongahela Division.
It’s probably too early to start looking at the standings, but I have a feeling each team may only get 20 games in this season due to League President, Joe Graff’s inability to control the weather.

The Blacksox have stormed to a 4-0 start
The Rebels have called off all or their games except for one, a 5-1 victory over the Rakers, they will probably finish the season 1-0, maybe 1-1.
The Rakers are 1-2
The Ducks are about to hit their stride after a so-so 1-3 start, a 21-3 finish is, theoretically, not out of the question.
the Eagles (1-3) beat up on the Hurricanes 14-0 for their first win of the season
the expansion Owls are 0-1

• It would be great to record a nice lopsided 14 run victory to balance out the opening day game that never happened.

• I hope our starting second baseman and three-hitter doesn’t have band practice this Monday.

we need his athleticism on display in the infield.

• Rumor has it Coach Jones is courting a top-tier free agent.

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In flurry of broken bats, and 1-3 putouts South Oakland lost a heart-breaker, 3-2 to Hebrew, Monday night at Spring View Field.
After allowing 2 first inning runs to the Ducks, the Oilers’ pitcher settled in and was lights out the rest of the night.
The game winning run came in the top of the seventh courtesy of pinch hitter Soji (sp.) who singled in the winning run with an eyes-closed-dying quail into right field.
The Ducks wasted a fine performance by Nick Homa (1-1) who suffered a complete game loss after allowing one earned run, off of three or four hits. The Oilers’ strategy was to reach on an error then take second on a past ball, and advance to third on a swinging third strike in the dirt, and score on a fielders choice, or bloop single.
All things being equal there were a few plays which could have been made that could have preserved a 2-1 victory or perhaps sent the game into extra innings. We didn’t kick the ball around too much but there were a couple errors. There were two double plays I could have turned at first, but didn’t, one came on a grounder to third with a runner on third. Guthrie threw the batter out at first, and I couldn’t get the ball out of my glove in time to throw out the runner at home. The other came late in the game with a runner on first and no outs, the batter hit me a hard ground ball and all I was thinking was “get the lead runner” which I did, but I could have stepped on first base first then thrown the runner out at second. The runner eventually scored. I have to make one of those plays, neither of which are an error but could have changed the game. Regardless, the Ducks haven’t hit at all this season, we should win game in which we allow only 3 runs. Our team is averaging 2 runs per game.
Two runs per game.
I’d blame it on poor attendance at pre-game batting practice, but I’ve hit before every game and I’m 1-8 on the season. I struck out to end the 6th inning of last night’s game.
We managed to get runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but the last two Ducks struck out, leaving the winning run on first.
Play of the Game
The play didn’t count but it was sweet.
Oilers’ catcher Kenji Johjima hit a slow roller to Guthrie at third, Guthrie charged it, barehanded the ball and whipped it over to first where I made a sweet Mike Richter pick on the short hop to get Johjima by a step. The ump called it foul, and Homa struck him out on the next pitch, due in part to the sweet play on the foul ball.
Guthrie also had a two-run double in the first to drive in the Ducks’ only runs.

Bullet POints

• Guthrie is our best player right now. He’s batting .400, all of his hits have been either doubles or triples. He leads the team in avg., RBI, hits, slugging, basically everything except stolen bases. He and I are tied at 1 for the Bob Faust hit-by-pitch award, which goes to the player who records the most hbp in a season
• Instead of losing games 15-8, we’re losing 3-2 and 4-1. I suppose that’s better and it’s encouraging that we’re competing every night, but it shouldn’t be our goal to simply “stay in every game”
• We need to have a sense of urgency every at-bat and every pitch.
• If/when our hitting comes around, we will win a lot of games this season.
• Go Penguins
• We wasted a second consecutive solid pitching performance. Nick was killing those guys and we didn’t help him.

We have a week off before we play the Phantoms Monday night at Spring View Field.
Bad news for the Phantoms.