Ducks starter, Ben Sorosky (W, 1-0) struck out five, and allowed one unearned run over four innings and DJ Dover went 2-for-3 with a HBP, three-run home run, and a game ending two-run single to lead the Ducks (2-1) to an 11-1 route over the Carrick Express.
Carrick jumped out to an early lead, scoring an unearned run in the first, on a walk, an error and a single.
South Oakland sent nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the first, and took a 3-1 lead. Casale singled and took second on a wild pitch, Gwin singled, Lombardi doubled, Koshzow was hit by a pitch then Carrick turned a home to first double play followed by singles by Strom and Pulice.
the Ducks scored six in the second, Lombardi doubled in Casale, Koshzow was hit by another pitch, Morgan doubled to the wall, and then Dover hit a ball over the left field fence. It wasn’t a cheap home run.
Sorosky got out of a bases loaded, no-out jam in the fourth thanks to a 9-3 double play, turned by Moore and Koshzow, and a strike out to end the threat.
Pat “Doc” DiPaola un-retired and pitched a scoreless fifth, hitting one batter.
Carrick’s third baseman made several solid plays in the field to keep the game from getting even more out of hand.
Some sats:
Eleven Ducks had hits
Pulice: 3 for 3
J. Zuzak: 0-1, SB
Petril: 2-2, R
Koshzow: 3-4, 3 R, 2 HBP
RBI
Dover (5), Lombardi, Morgan (2), Gwin, Pulice, Strom
South Oakland’s next game is Sunday, 8:30 PM at John Herb Field, vs. West View
Last season, a scooter that was thrown on top of our dugout from the area near the basket ball court by a Spring Hill kid. We kept the scooter. Since then, the winner of the Ducks/Oilers regular season series is awarded the scooter and keeps it for the following season. South Oakland took 2 of 3 from BIG OIL in 2016, but we lost to them twice in the playoffs so, maybe it’s not a great indication of post-season success.
The Oilers beat us 7-1 in a rain-shortened game on opening night. If they win tonight, the scooter is theirs.
We are going to be short our entire starting infield tonight. Our depth will be tested.
South Oakland of the North Side lost to rival BIG OIL 7-1 in a rain-shortened, 5 inning game in Spring Hill last night. The loss drops the team to 0-1.
Throwback night, 2014
The Oilers scored four in the first with two walks, two doubles, a single and a run-scoring, two out error. They added two in the second and one in the fifth.
After a rough first inning, Ducks starter Randy Patton (L, 0-1) settled down and kept his team in it through four, striking out 2 and scattering 7 hits.
The Oilers starter threw well, striking out 9 and working out of bases loaded jams in the second and third innings when it looked like South Oakland might crawl back into the game. The Ducks couldn’t get a big hit with runners in scoring position.
Ben Sorosky had the lone Ducks RBI on a bases loaded walk in the second following infield singles by Pulice and Morgan and a Joe Graff walk.
South Oakland’s best chance came in the third when TJ Morgan drew a one out, bases loaded walk, but the umpire forgot the count. Morgan was not awarded first, and we had a runner picked off first base, attempting to advance as one normally does on a bases loaded walk. Morgan then lined out to left to end the inning.
South Oakland’s next game is 2pm Sunday vs. Cranberry at Veteran’s Park of Cranberry (Not the one in Etna).
No ringers on the Oilers, but something tells me the player eligibility discussion is not over yet.
The Oilers have a few new guys who are solid. They hit well as a team, and if they get pitching, they will be tough to beat. This is true for almost every team in our division.
The Scooter will be in the building on Tuesday at Mellon. Big early season matchup
We need to hit a better, but as a team our approach at the plate was pretty good. Facing a tough lefty for the first real at bats of the year was a good test, and I think we will improve in this area.
There were multiple requests for Garrett Moore to return to his role as bench coach/bullpen catcher
Great to be back at it for a fourteenth NABA season, and a run at a third title.
It only took a week for the first player scandal of the season.
Apparently the Oilers brought in a former minor league player to pitch for them this summer. Seems surprising given their managers concern for the competitive balance of the league as expressed in the winter meetings when he complained about the prospect of the WOLFPACK! and the 2 Dirty 2 Birds: Return of the Bandidos rostering Division III college players.
Save the fucking sanctimony about how West View hurt your team’s feelings if you’re gonna bring in some dude who is obviously a ringer.
This is the most BIG OIL move I’ve ever seen. The fucking yuppie, white collar team brings in essentially a Dominican refugee, in an attempt to make up for the fact that their team is soft. Soft as cotton.
This explains why they wouldn’t play us on back to back nights. This dude can only pitch one of those days. I didn’t press the issue as the Pens were on last night.
The Oilers are scared.
Maybe three guys have any heart on that team, as much as I love them as human beings. Seriously though, just embrace being villains as far as the league is concerned because there’s no way around it. Get your fucking neoliberal councilman to throw out the first pitch across from Google in God awful Bakery Square and flout your Asian players and your nice unis, then he can go back to helping our mayor force Pittsburgh’s working poor into Penn Hills so ya’ll can bike to work without having to look at them.
So, where does that leave us?
I am excited for the opportunity. If you’re not pumped about the prospect of playing against a pitcher this good, you should go join PSL, or see if the Oilers will take you.
We have the opportunity to beat a team that thinks it’s going to cruise tonight because they networked their way into a stud pitcher. We are throwing an ex-Black Sox, ex-Oiler, and one time Duck junk baller who is already telling me he doesn’t want to come out of the game.
We haven’t seen live pitching yet, so should be a good test off the bat to see where we are hitting wise.
Home games will be Wednesday nights, 9PM at the Duck Pond. I tried to get an 8PM time slot on a different weeknight to help out a couple guys with scheduling conflicts, but it didn’t work out.
Really, it wouldn’t be the offseason if we didn’t get fucked over by the city. We need someone who is at least from Pittsburgh to be in charge of getting a field who knows someone who can help us out with cost and or location. My fault for not realizing this 10 years ago and continuing to think I could go through normal channels to get a regular time slot at a city field that’s better than Spring Hill.
I’m convinced we will never get a Mellon Park permit. I won’t be able to, anyway. We will have to wait until the Oilers fold and merge with our team. I’ll play the long game if I have to.
The only way to get Mellon Park is to know a local politician who will pull strings with the city. Ridiculous lengths to go for a baseball field permit. Also, PSL can go fuck itself. They don’t need a field with 90 foot bases and a mound, but that organization has more baseball field permits than any non-youth league in the city. I don’t even know what they do aside from ruin baseball fields by playing slow pitch softball on them in the rain. I assume they are as corrupt. Possibly as corrupt as the youth league that has all the other Mellon Park permits and never uses them.
Also, fuck Pitt for not letting us use old Trees Field. We have about ten alumni on our team who paid a lot of money to that school, the least they could do is let us potentially injure ourselves on university property.
The Oilers got their Mellon permit via their councilman friend, and that new team that used to be the Dirty Birds will play their home games at Mellon on Sundays because one guy is cousins with an O’Conner. Good for them for getting those spots and making the most of their connections.
I think the city needs a better system, but I’m probably biased. I doubt there is any pressing need for the city to change how the permits are divided up. I am probably one of maybe ten people who gives a shit.
Anyway, I like playing a Springview. We have a good relationship with the youth league that uses it and we can store all the team gear in that shed. Most teams hate playing there. It gives us a legit home field advantage.
Ideally we’d play at 8pm at a field where it isn’t as dangerous for me to bring my daughter, on a night that works for everyone on the roster, but that’s not the case. I did my best. If someone else wants to take over field duties for next season, they are welcome to. Please.
The season will probably start the second week of April, so heads up for that. We won’t get the full schedule until probably the week before we start. I’ll have another post up after the draft. Maybe I’ll share the story about the time I drafted a retarded kid accidentally. It’s a pretty good story.
Send in your league dues. Let your coach know if you need a new hat or jersey. Do this ASAP. We have nine awesome pairs of stirrups still unaccounted for, and guys who have paid their dues get first dibs.
Personnel Moves: 2017 PITTSBURGH NABA (AA) HOT STOVE ADDITION
The South Oakland Ducks welcome longtime reader, Larry Z’s favorite player and Gray Bats all time leader in slugging percentage, average, HRs, RBI and ground rule doubles, Mark Lombardi to the team. He joins former Gray Bats, Ben Sorosky and returning catcher Rob Galvanek on the 2017 Ducks. If Lombardi wants stirrups, he can have them as he has paid his dues for the season. This move will sure up the outfield and make up for the loss of Brendan Chartier in the lineup.
Related, the Spring Hill Scooter will be named the Brendan Chartier Memorial Spring Hill Scooter, as Brendan played for the Oilers and Ducks and has now retired. The one-game stint with the Oilers occurred this summer when a few of us joined BIG OIL for an exhibition against Kenyon College in Ohio. That was a fun time. Thanks to Zach Ciccone for the invite and the Oiler’s organization for putting it together. Chartier retires tied for second all time in Ducks post-season home runs (1). (Gwin, 2, McCray, Ken Cool, Scioscia, Koshzow, 1).
A nod to Pat DiPaola who retired after two solid seasons. We always had a chance to win when he pitched. Doc leaves tied for the all time lead in post-season ejections (1).
Pitcher, Randy Patten has given the Ducks a verbal commitment to return to South Oakland after a few seasons with the Black Sox and Oilers.
Ken Cool’s brother is trying to release him so he can come play for us.
DJ Dover looks to return full time after becoming an air traffic controller and missing the last 3/4 of 2016 with work commitments.
Number 55 is in the best shape of his life.
Still no word on our field permit situation.
That’s about it. Not much turn over from last year’s third place team.
So far we’ve won a title every seven years. Unbelievably this is our fifteenth season coming up, so we are due to win it all again.
We finished in 3rd place. Respectable. And while the Oilers knocked us out of the playoffs, we won the scooter.
When the 2015 season ended, the team had a lot of questions. At times it left me wondering whether it was worth all the time to keep the team going if we couldn’t contend for a title even after dropping down to AA. But if the 2015 season left players wondering if it was time to hang ’em up, the playoff run in 2016 which ended in a defeat to the Oilers in the losers bracket final, has the team generally optimistic and eager to get back at it next spring. It was a tough way to go out, but we battled.
Maybe if I handle the pitching vs. the Oilers differently we wind up in the finals and give Shaler a run. Who knows. Shaler probably beats us anyway. They are young and were rested going into that series. But maybe not. If we kept hitting and got a couple solid starts out of our pitching staff, maybe pull the upset. Maybe if we took care of business against Cranberry and South Hills, we get a better draw and wind up in the finals against the Oilers which we declare a draw to avoid either team having to move up to a division. Anyway, all the hypotheticals are pointless. Shaler will get crushed in AAA next year. Fuck that shitty field and shittier time slot.
Beating the Eagles and WOLFPACK back to back to get to the loser’s bracket finals, was one of the highlights of my long-ass Ducks career. In 14 seasons, I don’t think I’ve felt as satisfied after a win as I did when Jon struck that last kid out to end the WOLFPACK game. They did not expect to lose after beating us by 19 a week earlier. That 19-run loss means nothing now.
We played our best baseball in the playoffs, and came up just short due to our lack of pitching depth. Hopefully we can add another couple arms in the off season. Maybe we have some answers in-house that were underutilized this season. Either way, we will return the core of our lineup, which will be one year wiser and even more full of grit and veteran savvy.
I’d like to thank Joe Graff for running the league, and all the players and managers for giving me the chance to play baseball for another year. It means a lot to be able to play anything resembling competent, competitive baseball at age 35. I don’t take it for granted.
Congrats to the Bulldogs, Pittsburgh D2 and the Rebels on your championships. It’s always good to see Jefferson Hills lose.
Thanks again to the Limbachs and all the fans for coming out to watch us play. It’s much more fun when there are people in the stands.
I’d especially like to thank my teammates for giving me a team to play on, manage and write poorly about for another season. We’ll get em next year.
Team Awards:
Offensive Player of the Year: Branden Chartier (with a nod to Morgan, Strom, and Graff)
Defensive Player of the year: Tony Casale
Pitcher of the Year: Chuck Zuzak (though Chris and Pat won big games for us down the stretch and in the post season)
South Oakland (2-1) upset the top two seeds to advance to the loser’s bracket final in a wild Sunday double header at John Herb Field yesterday. The South Oakland Ducks beat the second-seed Eagles 9-8, and the one-seed WOLFPACK!!! 12-8.
South Oakland plays tonight 8:30 vs. BIG OIL for a spot in the finals.
Game 1 Recap:
Ben Sorosky drove in five runs and the Ducks infield made several high-level plays on defense to lead the Ducks past the South Side Eagles (0-2).
South Oakland scored a run in the first on TJ Morgan’s RBI groundout, the Eagles answered with 2 in the bottom of the inning, but had a guy thrown out at home and another picked off second.
The Ducks scored two in the second on Sorosky’s single and three more in the third behind an RBI single by Koshzow and sacrifice flies by Graff and Moore.
6-2 Ducks after 3.
The Eagles worked out of a jam in the fourth, and scored a run in the bottom of the inning to bring the score to 6-3 after 4.
In the fifth, Sorosky drove in two more runs on a fielder’s choice, with Graff hustling all the way from second to score.
8-3 Ducks going into the bottom of the fifth.
The Eagles were doubled off on a fly-out to right when the runner didn’t re-tag second. He was not happy. The Eagles added one run in the inning.
8-4 Ducks going into the bottom of the sixth.
The Eagles rallied. they scored four in the inning and had the bases loaded with one out when Dipaola got their two hitter to ground into a bases loaded, 5-3 double play.
The game was tied 8-8 going into the seventh.
Koshzow leadoff for the Ducks with a HBP and went to third on Moore’s single to right. More stole second. Then with one out, Ben Sorosky drove in the winning run with an RBI groundout to the shortstop.
In the bottom of the seventh, after a lead-off single, South Oakland turned a 4-6-3 double play, and then the game ended on a legit Jeter play on a ground ball in the hole to Ducks, shortstop Tony Casale. Casale had maybe the best defensive day I’ve seen by a shortstop in this league.
Final: 9-8 Ducks.
The Eagles made a few base running errors in the game. We ran the bases well. That was essentially the difference in this one. We had a chance to crumble in the 6th and 7th but held it together with a couple clutch plays by the defense.
Zuzak (ND) started for the Ducks, pitching five strong innings before giving way to the bullpen who held on for the win. Pat Dipaola pitched two innings in relief for the win (1-1).
Game 2 Recap:
Pat DiPaola won his second game of the day and Jon Moore pitched a scoreless one and two thirds innings for the save, as South Oakland out-hit West View to advance to the loser’s bracket final.
With two outs in the second, Moore walked and Nichols singled. Then Casale singled in a run, Gwin singled in a run, and Morgan doubled in two. 4-0 Ducks with two out and a man on second. Chartier singled in Morgan. 5-0 Ducks. Then Koshzow singled and Graff hit a two run double and was thrown out on a close play at third.
7-0 Ducks going into the bottom of the second.
We kicked it around a little, and West View took advantage. They scored three unearned, five total, on two errors and a couple clutch hits.
7-5 Ducks after two.
In the third, offensive force, Ben Sorosy scored on a past ball, and Gwin drove in two runs with a single to right. Our defense kept West View off the board in the bottom half of the inning. No one scored in the fourth. West View scored two in the fifth.
10-7 Ducks after five. After a single, a fielder’s choice, an error and a triple lead to a Westview run, Jon Moore took the mound for the Ducks.
One out, Ducks up 10-8 with runners on second and third. Moore struck out the first batter he faced, walked a guy, then struck out another batter with the bases loaded to end the threat.
10-8 Ducks after six.
Gwin singled in two runs in the seventh to give the Ducks some breathing room.
In the bottom of the seventh, Moore closed the coffin on West View’s season, retiring the side in order.
Ducks win. 12-8.
I’d like to thank all the Ducks fans who came out to support our team, and the West View fans who came out to yell stuff at our team. What a great atmosphere. It felt really good to eliminate that team.
In defeating the Eagles and WOLFPACK!!! yesterday, the Ducks beat the two teams who eliminated them in the previous two playoff campaigns. South Side eliminated South Oakland in the 2015 play-in game. West View defeated the Ducks in the 2014 semifinals.
Big Time upset in AAA as the 6th Seed Mon Valley Dirty Birds eliminated the 3rd seed Clinton Cherokee with an 8-3 victory in the first round of the playoffs.
If anyone has any info on how this game went down, please let us know in the comments.
Can’t wait for the winter meetings when Clinton’s coach tries to use this game as an excuse for all the AA teams to move up to AAA next season.
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