South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Here’s one from The King

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball
The most tragic King since Duncan.

I like this one so I used it again.

click the link below for a great…
quote from Duck legend, and friend Rob Swanger

another link to a brief history of the Ducks-Black Sox rivalry.

The game is scheduled for tomorrow. There is a chance that could change.
This effects both teams equally.
We will know later tonight.

Whenever we play, it’s going to be bad news for the Black Sox

Game 22:Nick Homa in, The Color of Money. Ducks 2, Rakers 1

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball
THE DUCKS ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS

Nick Homa struck out 14 Rakers, allowed three hits, and drove in the game winning run as the Ducks earned themselves a date with the Black Sox, in the Monongahela Wild Card game, Teusday Night.

This game was a pitcher’s duel to end all pitcher’s duels. Raker’s starter Ben Sorosky threw a complete game five-hitter of his own, striking out somewhere between seven and ten Ducks. Sorosky also went 2-4 at the plate, and scored the Rakers only run on a wild pitch.

The Ducks scored two runs in the second, when Mark Guthrie walked, stole second and advanced to third on Ryan Novak’s single to right field.

Novak stole second, and the Ducks had runners on second and third with one out. Guthrie scored on a past ball, Novak advanced to third, and Nick Homa singled him in one out later.

On this day, that was all Homa would need.

The Ducks made the plays in the field, first baseman Ben Gwin let a ground ball, get behind him in the 6th, and second baseman Andrew McCray made the play with Homa covering. Later in the inning, Ryan Novak caught a line drive up the middle, which may have brought the tying run to the plate.

Three Stars of the game:

3: Ryan Novak 1 for 3, run
2: Ben Sorosky(L): 7IP, 4h, 8k, 2-4, run
1: Nick Homa(W): 7IP, 4h, 13k, 1-3, GWRBI

I’ll have more on this game and a black sox/playoff preview tomorrow.

Kolaja almost had that one against the fence in left, what an effort.


Game 21: Antietam. Rebels forfeit to Ducks…One game to bind them, one game to rule them all…

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball
Ken Griffey Kolaja III, comes up big, as always.

I wrote this a while back,
South Oakland(5-8-1) has one game before the July 2nd, All-Star break. Due to a recent slump in which the Ducks have lost four of five, by an average of two runs per game, the team finds itself on the cusp of elimination. With ten games remaining (eight against Monongahela Division teams), South Oakland still has a chance to go on a run and sneak into the post-season.

Since then, South Oakland has gone on a 5-1-1 run.
and we find ourselves on the cusp of the playoffs.


Now it comes down to one game

BATTLE FOR THE WILD CARD


VS.

Ducks vs. Rakers
Sunday, 2:30 Avonworth High School Field.
Win and we’re in.

Batting practice: Noon, Pitt Field. All hands on deck.

***
How the mighty have fallen.

The defending champion, Monroeville Rebels, are suffering through a 4-16-1 season. The South Oakland Ducks take a 7-0 victory, which sets up a do or die match-up with the Cyrilla Landscaping Rakers, Sunday at 2:30 at Avonworth High Shcool Field. Both teams were operating under the assumption the game would be played at noon, but a mix-up with the Pie Traynor Field permit issuers, lead to a last minute time change, moving the game to 9am. General Lee was unable to rally the troops, and the Rebels surrendered rather than suffer further casualties.

General Lee has had a rough season. The Rebels short-comings this season can not all be blamed on their field general, he can’t force his soldiers to arrive to battle on time, and he fights valiantly. No one can take away their championship from 2007. Chances of a repeat, not great. only if four Monongahela Division teams fold.

There are a couple of mercenaries on the Rebels who would look good in green and gold, next season.

The history of the Ducks and .500 baseball, lest we be doomed to repeat it…
South Oakland is over .500 for the first time in almost half a decade. Even the Ducks title campaign of 2003, saw the team finish with a 6-9 regular season record before winning three straight post season games en-route to their coronation as the first Pittsburgh NABA Champions. The Ducks opened the 2004 Campaign 2-0, to put the team at 11-9 overall, but the team finish with around nine wins that season, two or three games under .500.
The Ducks started the ’05 season 3-1. before finishing 10-13.

Change starts at the top. TC “Buttermaker” Jones, Coach of the Year.

Indeed.

Bring the Pain.
(video contains profanity)

Bad News for the Rakers

Take it Easy

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

*TIME CHANGE: GAME TOMORROW 9 AM PIE TRAYNOR FIELD*

Here is the link to the recap of the last Rebels game, which the Ducks lost. The week’s worth of posts leading up to this game were fun to write. The game came down to the last at-bat. The Ducks lost.

Ducks vs. Rebels, Saturday, 12pm Pie Traynor Field. Tonight won’t be the last night you have to get insanely drunk, we only have three regular season games left. This is a must-win game.

The Ultimate Warrior destroyed the Eagles, afterwards he took on Phil Collins.
Do you like Phil Collins? How about Genesis?

The Eagles have fallen 1.5 games out of the wild card. Here’s a recap by the Warriors’ Steve Heckman. The Game
Warrior, Doug Ryba, is afraid of Triceratops. Aren’t we all?

More footage of Craig Boley dominating the Eagles...

The Ducks trail the Rakers by a half game. A win over the Rebels will set up a one game playoff for the Wild Card on Sunday.

I think the Eagles are eliminated, unless the Ducks and Rakers lose out, and tie their game on Sunday. The Eagles were much improved this season. Their ace pitcher, Joe Walsh owned me this season, to the tune of 1 for 7 with a K, hbp, and a walk.

Our life is in our hands.

Darth Vader, Jedi: Not a fan of Rebels.

Here’s Neil Young

That might have been a bit much, but does anyone take this stuff seriously?

Why so serious?

The Dark Knight was amazing.
Going to see it tonight would be a good alternative to testing your capacity for alcohol consumption.

Bad news for the Rebels.

Down to the wire

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

No Games on Thursday or Friday. The Ducks next game is Saturday, 12pm at Pie Traynor Field, vs. the Rebels.

It is likely we will play a double header on Sunday, at Avonworth High School. One of the games will be at 2:30pm vs. The Rakers.

The other game of the double header will be against either the Bulldogs, or Black Sox. As of now, it appears the Rakers will finish with at least one more game than the Ducks, even if we play two on Sunday. Not sure how that will effect playoff seeding.

Wild Card Race
Remaining Schedules:

Rakers (11-10 -yesterday’s Rebels’ game yet to be posted) remaining schedule, Hurricanes, Ducks.

Ducks (9-9-2): Rebels, Rakers, (plus one)

Eagles(9-10) Warriors, Oilers, Phantoms, Black Sox


Sorry if I added to the schedule confusion, Ducks. These have been confusing times.

I was warming up Nick during the bottom of the sixth of our 8-4 victory over the Rakers, and I did not report the order of events correctly. Here’s what actually happened:

Bottom 6 score tied 3-3. McCray doubled, Homa sacrificed, but wound up with an infield hit when their pitcher slipped (I think you have to score that a hit, right?) then they intentionally walked A.Smith to load the bases for KT, who singled through the drawn-in left side of the infield. 4-3 Ducks. Then Spagnola singled up the middle, 5-3 Ducks. Moore came to the plate and drove in a run with an RBI ground-out. 6-3 Ducks. Eric Lee came up with runners on second and third and doubled to left, driving in two runs. 8-3 Ducks, after six.

With three games in two days, it is possible Jesse Smith will give us a couple quality innings this weekend, giving him a chance to lead the team in OBP, SLG, AVG., HR, and ERA, WHIP, and strikeouts per innings pitched. That would be Ruthian. He probably won’t meet the minimum requirements to earn the pitcher of the year award, though. {Segue}

Here is my official, only slightly biased, endorsement of Nick Homa(4-3-1) for Pitcher of the Year. Or maybe MVP, he is hitting .368, with solid power numbers in limited action at the plate.

Homa’s pitching stats, IP: 52 , K: 63, ERA: 3.10, 1 save

Suffered one-run losses to the Bulldogs, and Oilers, the tie was a nine inning, 5-5 game against the Owlz.
Has three more strikeouts than Fago. Quack.

Also, I think the league should have a coach of the year award, and it should go to either Don Henley of the Eagles, Grounds Keeper Willie of the Rakers, or TC “Buttermaker”Jones of the Ducks, which ever team makes sneaks into the last playoff spot. (With consideration to Craig McTavish of the Oilers. )

James Fago, Z-men, has 27 RBI. Friend of the Ducks’ outfielder, Jim Spina, Owlz, has stolen 21 bases. Impressive numbers. Brendan Malone, Warriors, is hitting .767-not too shabby (who’s keeping the book over there, Heckman?).

Ducks Leaders:
Batting Avg. Jesse Smith, .500, Ben Gwin, .440, Chris Wojoton, .375
Doubles: Andrew McCray, Ben Gwin (4) [McCray has hit four doubles in half the at bats it has taken Gwin ] Chris Wojton, Mark Guthrie, (3)
Triples: Speed Demon, Mark Guthrie, 1
HR: J.Smith, Chris Wojton, Ryan Novak, (1)
RBI: Gwin 18, J. Smith 11, McCray 9
OPS: J.Smith 1.389 (sick)
SB: Gwin, 8, Garrett Moore, 5, KT. Murphy, Chris Wojton (3).
HBP: J.Smith, 5, Gwin, 4, Guthrie, McCray (3)

Pitching:
Wins: Homa, 4, Guthrie, 3, A.Smith, TC Jones, (1)
Ties: Guthrie, Homa, (1)
IP: Homa, 52 A.Smith 31, Guthrie, 30
K’s: Homa, 63, A.Smith 21
ERA: Guthrie 2.75, Homa, 3.10
Hit Batsmen: Jones, 1

I wonder if Larry would be so kind as to fill us in on the outcome of the Rebels, Rakers game last night. The Rebels are a tough team if they have all their players, we lost to them once this season, when they had eight players, and we did not take the out in the ninth spot in the order. We also did not hit the ball into the outfield enough to take advantage of their two outfielders. Although if I had to play with only two OF, Stell and Tremmel would be as solid a pairing as any not found on the Ducks. E.Lee and Campbell/Wojton/Kolaja, would be deadly, in fact we might want to consider going to a five infielder format and doing this on purpose.

Abner Doubleday: Union General, Creator of Baseball.
Not a fan of Rebels

SCHEDULE UPDATES*******

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks, this is your skipper speeking. I just talked to Prez Joe and he informed me we will not be playing on Friday. There is a possibility of playing tomorrow night (Thursday) at 8:30 at John Herb. He will let me know later, so keep an eye on the blog or your inbox. Finally, we most likely will be playing a double header on sunday.

Rakers Pitcher, Mike Jackson lead Cyrilla Landscaping to an 8-4 victory over Don Henley and the Eagles, Tuesday night at John Herb Field.

Profanity Warning:

General Lee surrenders
(thanks to the Duke, and TheJza for the photoshop inspiration)

I’m not sure who we play tomorrow or if I will be able to make it.

Bad news for the Bulldogs


Bad News for the Black Sox

Quack

Stormy Monday,…A fictional day in the life of an amateur baseball league’s president

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

There have been a record number of rain-outs this season, it’s got to be stressful for Joe, to have to reschedule all these games and deal with the domino effect of inconveniences resulting from such poor weather. His team is in the middle of a playoff run, and I’m sure he would much rather focus on simply playing the game, and not dealing with guys like this…..

(this film clip contains profanity)

I thought our rain-out against the League President’s Bulldogs provided a nice segue into this fictional story. If the league president, who reads somewhat faithfully would leave a comment, I’d love to hear his thoughts.

A Day in the Life of the League President of a Fictitious Amateur Baseball League, in the Not Too Distant Future.

The Back Story
Calvin Davis played baseball in high school in Oregon, and went on to play JV for the Oregon State Beavers, while he earned his teaching degree. In the year 2015, Massive budget cutbacks eliminated all public schools in Oregon, so Calvin had to move to Cincinnati to find work at East Cincinnati High School, Home of the Gamblers. Aside from his family, Calvin loves baseball, more than anything. So when the ECHS Gamblers varsity first base coach was fired for illegally recruiting ball players from neighboring districts, Calvin throws himself at the vacancy with the reckless abandon of a young Lenny Dykstra. His girlfriend Annie is luke-warm about the idea, the extra $35 a week will help with the bills, but she won’t see nearly as much of her “love stallion”, her pet name for her boyfriend whom she followed almost entirely across the country. When Calvin finds a local amateur baseball league in which to play during the summers, she is even more upset, but she is willing to endure Calvin’s near neurotic love of balls and bats, because he is a good man, and gives her good loving. She also likes to see him happy, and loves watching him in tight pants.

Calvin’s life is great at this point, his American History course is going wonderfully, and he can see improvement in the players he coaches. He is hopeful he will be able to coach third next season. His Amateur baseball team, the Gravediggers wins the regular season title, and despite losing in the first round of the playoffs, he had a good season and is happy he has the chance to keep playing baseball. After hitting for the cycle in a post-seaosn all-star game, he pops the question to Annie, and she says “yes”, life is good.

When he returns from the honeymoon in Niagra Falls, Calvin learns that the President of the Cincinnati Amateur Baseball League has been siphoning league funds to subsidize his paint thinner addiction, and has been thrown in jail after knocking off a string of convenience stores in Northern Kentuky. Calvin, in a moment he will ponder for the rest of his life, volunteers to take over as League President
He thinks to himself, “I have summers off, I am well organized, and I love baseball. I will be a great league president.”

Fast Forward, one year later, mid season, Calvin Davis is president of the ten team CABL. Here is a typical Saturday in June day for the new president.

  • 6:00am Wake up, ten mile jog, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-up, one shot of whiskey.
  • 7:00am Poo, shower, shave, shot of whiskey.
  • 8:00am Breakfast with the sports page: two raw eggs, a box of Wheaties, half a side of Bacon, one shot of whiskey
  • 9:00am Check league email: in-box shows 897 unread messages. After a shot of whiskey, Calvin browses the emails, 297 are hate mail from teams 1, 2, 5, and 7, complaining about the 65 year old umpire who demands to work games alone, but can’t remember the inning, count or number of outs. 300 messages are from teams 3, 4, 8, and 9 regarding their late league dues, which Calvin needed a week ago in order to secure field times for rain dates and rescheduling. 200 emails regarding why Calvin’s “Gravediggers” have the easiest schedule this season, and 90 e-request from teams 1-9 to have games rescheduled. 10 emails demanding Calvin return the bases and rakes to the designated league equipment shed.
  • 9:15am Sends polite, but firm email to umpire association inquiring why his previous 25 requests to have the mildly retarded umpire not work any more league games have gone unfulfilled. Responds with “no” to all requests, and sends a polite, but firm league wide email requesting all league dues be paid before the 1/4 mark of the season or teams will be disbanded, and that whomever took the rakes and the bases from the league equipment shed will have to return them, or be fined $50.
  • 11:00am Recieves call from Gravedigger’s head coach Quinn Zimmerman, who frantically rants about team six’s blog post in which he is depicted as the “Paul Bearer”, who will “eventually betray the Gravediggers in a manner similar to the WWF’s 1996 Summer Slam when Paul Bearer joins forces with Mankind and smashes the urn over the Undertaker’s head, and he loses his powers from beyond the grave, forcing the return of the less creepy, biker Undertaker at the next WrestleMania, who was no where near as cool. “I mean, I don’t have powers from beyond the grave, and I would never betray you guys, he was stretching to go from “Gravediggers” to “Undertakers” anyway, this guy is ridiculous.” Calvin assures Quinn, the post was a joke, and that they will just take it out on Team six when they play later in the day. Calvin turns off his phone.

Paul Bearer, with urn.

  • 12:30pm Annie comes home after working 16 straight hours at Cincinnati General Hospital to find Calvin in his jock strap and stirrups sitting at his lap top pouring over CABL spread sheets with a half empty bottle of whiskey. She complains that ever since Calvin took the job, he has slipped dangerously past “social drinker” level and her private area is “getting lonely” She rips into him claiming, “what good is that huge man-wand of yours if you won’t ever take off your jock strap.” Calvin replies in a loving, but firm tone, “Annie, you know I love you, but I have a twelve game hitting streak going, and I haven’t taken off my jock strap or made sweet love to you during the streak, haven’t you seen Bull Durham?, don’t mess with the streak.” Annie goes to sleep, Calvin returns to the spread sheet.
  • 2:00pm, turns phone back on-73 voice mails, shot of whiskey: browses messages: 20 from Team One, complaining that Team Three got both Ken Griffeys to play on their team and that it wasn’t fair, two from Team three letting him know that they contacted the national office and there is no rule against former pro’s in the CABL, and that they have two new roster additions. 31 messages from Team Four complaining that Team Seven broke the innings pitched per week rule and should forfeit their last game. 10 messages from Team Seven claiming they had the rule book and the week started on Monday, not Sunday and Team Four is bitter and they stink at baseball, so shut up already. 7 messages from members of team eight, saying their backup catcher stole the rakes and bases, and sold them for money to pay off gambling debts, and has been missing since last Friday, and are there any free agent catchers available. 2 messages from the umpire association, citing non-discriminatory hiring policies, and assuring they will minimize the presence of the “slow” umpire. 1message from Coach Zimmerman complaining about a blog post by Team Six which shows a youtube clip of the Monster truck “Gravedigger” bursting into flames, and its driver suffering 3rd degree burns, the caption of which reads: Coach Zimmerman, is a flamer and will destroy the Gravediggers.


2:15-Emails team eight, says he will overlook fine, citing extenuating circumstances. checks Team Six’s blog, laughs so hard he spits out his whiskey.
4:00 pm Team Five calls and says the umpire who showed up for their game against team Nine was not the half-wit, but was entirely drunk, and has passed out on top of home plate. Shot of whiskey. Calvin goes to umpire the game.
4:20 pm, Calvin arrives at the the field, strips the drunk umpire down to his boxers and uses his gear, however the umpire weighs just over 340 lbs, and the best the teams can do is roll him back to the back stop. Calvin umpires the game wearing over-sized equipment with the passed out half naked umpire rolled into a ball ten feet behind home plate.
5:00pm Manager of Team Nine, argues a call and upon his ejection takes second base with him. Calvin offers the hubcap of his Chevy as second base, and continues to umpire the game.
6:45pm the game ends in extra innings, team nine wins on a wild pitch that gets stuck beneath the beached umpire. Calvin changes at the field, and hurries to his 7:30 game against Team Six.
7:0pm Calvin fields three consecutive calls as he approaches the field. The first from Team Five demanding a forfeit due to playing the game with a hubcap for a base, and that the ball was stuck under the umpire and the catcher would have thrown the winning run out at the plate had he been able to get the ball; the second call is from the umpires association threatening to break their contract after reports of stripping and rolling an umpire were reported, the third is from Coach Zimmerman, ranting about a bad “necrophilia joke” on Team Six’s blog.
7:15pm arrives the field just in time to hastily warm up for his game. Shot of whiskey.
10:00pm Calvin’s hitting streak ends, and his game against Team Six ends in a tie when the lights go out 45 minutes earlier than the county official said they would.
11:00pm Calvin arrives at home, realizes he never replaced his hubcap. Shot of whiskey. He sits down to enter his teams score into the league website. Checks email, 1,728 unread messages. Shot of whiskey. Among the emails are complaints from Quinn about Team Six’s write up of the game, in which their team blogger rants about the lights and posts a of the Undertaker dying at the Royal Rumble “That guy is a freaking singles hitter, where does he get the balls to write this stuff? and we’re the “Gravediggers” not the “Undertakers””

11:15pm Calvin finally takes off his jock after his hitting streak ends, and is ready to copulate with his wife. However, when he goes into the bed room, he finds a lengthy letter from Annie, she says she is leaving him. She cites his drinking and unhealthy dedication to a baseball league full of teams that don’t even appreciate his hard work and dedication, when he had a beautiful woman at home. adding insult to injury, “I always liked Quinn Zimmerman better than you, and he doesn’t have a problem taking off his jock strap. Shenwrites that she has changed her cell phone number, leaves no forwarding address, and takes his Tony Gwynn autographed baseball.
11:30pm emails coach Zimmerman, says he’s decided to play for Team Six.
12:00am, shot of whiskey. six hours of sleep before Calvin does it all over again.

Longest post ever, thank you, Joe.
Go Ducks

***

Ducks, read the next post for schedule info, be alert for emails, I’ll post schedule updates on the blog as well.

Keep winning

Rain Out, Schedule Ramifications

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball, who names their team the Rebels?

First, I’d like to apologize to Nick Homa’s grandparent’s for the use of profanity a few posts back. The line in question it is a quote from the film “The Big Lebowski”, which is one of my favorites. I assure you I don’t hate anyone, and don’t normally use the f-word as a modifier in my writing. I will temper my language from now on. Thanks for reading, and providing Nick with wonderful baseball genes.

***

Storm

It’s obvious, the league president contacted Storm from the X-Men, and had her use her mutant powers to bring a fierce downpour upon Spring Hill, to flood the field and cause a cancellation. He has been doing this all season, just to get in the heads of his division rivals and teams who give him grief.

This game will be made up some time this week. Thankfully, Storm will be fighting giant robots in a far away galaxy, and will not be able to help her friend Joe delay the inevitable beating by the South Oakland Ducks any longer than a few days. (put that on your bulletin board, you Mutant lovers.)

In other news, the Ducks will take on the Confederacy on Saturday at a field to be determined sometime in the noon hour. That will give me another week to anger them into hitting me with a pitch.

South Oakland will potentially play four games in six days this week. We will be provided 24 hours notice before any games are scheduled.

This is happening league wide in an attempt to get all the rain-outs played, every team will deal with this, so don’t start feeling sorry for ourselves, or mad at Joe just because we had our pitching rotation set on “Decimate” for the final playoff push.

The Ducks’ bullpen is ready to pick up the slack. Jim has been dreaming of this since the Matadors’ game, TC’s wing is well rested, and ready fire.

In theory, I’m in favor of the move. It would cause problems if the Rakers finished with one more game than the Ducks and the Eagles. I don’t like the fact that I may either have to miss work, or a game because of it. So it goes….

We have a chance to get into the playoffs. I will do everything I can to get to the games, it is in our team’s best interest the rest of the Ducks do the same.

Both Rambo and Captain America would have fought for the Union.
Quack.

Game 20: The Ducks Abide. Ducks 8, Rakers 4

pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball
Talking Heads

South Oakland brought the rakes, and the Rakers brought a duck; a stuffed duck with a make-shift noose. The poor bird spent the afternoon suspended on the back stop staring at the Ducks’ dugout. After a brief rain delay, perhaps inspired by their fallen comrade, the Ducks soared over soggy Pie Traynor Field. Everyone contributed, the whole flock. Now the Ducks find themselves in a three way tie for the final playoff spot in the Monongahela Division.

***
Mark Guthrie (3-1) struck out five and scattered eleven hits over seven innings, as the South Oakland Ducks evened their record at 9-9-2, after today’s victory over the Rakers. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, South Oakland came out raking. Eric Lee started the game with a lead off single, Gregg Campbell walked and both runners advanced on a double steal. Catcher, Ben Gwin singled in both runners to put the Ducks ahead 2-1. Then…
Kirk Gibson doubled to right, and Gwin scored from first, 3-1 Ducks after one.

It appeared as though the Rakers would figure out Guthrie. The Rakers scored two runs in the second, but were hitting the ball hard, Ben Sorosky hit a line drive right at SS, Andrew McCray, Nick Homa threw out a runner at home after a single to left, and Jeremy Barchie flew out deep to left. Their outs all came on hard hit balls.

The Ducks defense was spectacular, they picked up Guthrie in the middle innings, and stole several runs from the Rakers.

Were it not for two “oh-my-god” catches: the fist by right fielder Coby Kolaja, on a flair to right, the second by Gregg Campbell on a ball which seemed destined to be a triple, the Ducks may have found themselves playing catch-up.

Inspired by the defense behind him, Guthrie settled down, and the Rakers bats became as lifeless as the stuffed Duck hanging from the back stop.

After the second inning this was some of the best baseball, we’ve seen this season. Both teams battling for their playoff lives, the plays were made, the pitchers were phenomenal, and the intensity was as thick as the mud behind home plate.

Neither team could take controll of the game, the score was tied 3-3 going into the bottom of the sixth, then it was time.

McCray continued his domination of the Rakers right fielder, a lead off double put the winning run in scoring position with no outs. Nick Homa laid down a perfect sac bunt, and the muck tripped the Rakers fielder, Homa was safe at first. Eric Tans pinch hit for Ken Griffey Kolaja Jr, and reached on an error. Bases loaded, no outs.

KT Murphy; hitless the last two games, benched against the Eagles, stepped to the plate 0 for 2 on the day with a ground out to the pitcher and a strikeout in his previous two at bats. Redemption.

Barchie left one up, and Murphy made him pay, an RBI single and it was 4-3 Ducks.

Garret Moore drove in another run with a fielder’s choice to the right side. with runners on second and third with one out, Adam Smith was intentionally walked to set up the double play.
“Rick” James Spagnola took it personally. In a profanity laced at-bat, Spagnola singled in another run with a shot up the middle, just past a diving Brandon Eberle.

The bases were still loaded for Eric Lee who stomped the life out of the Rakers with his third hit of the day.

Lee doubled to left-center, and the Ducks would take an 8-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
After a lead off single, Guthrie got a double play ball, and the Ducks survived three consecutive two-out singles by the Rakers to hold on for the 8-4 victory; the biggest win in a long time for the storied South Oakland franchise.

BULLET POINTS

Thank you to everyone who came out to watch the game.

  • Eric Lee had a heroic game, 3-4 2B, 2RBI…It is possible he also stole two bases and threw out two runners at the plate.
  • KT had a clutch RBI single late in the Black Sox game, and did it again today.
  • I think I had the plate blocked on the first play at home, but that last guy was absolutely out at home.
  • If your going to bring a duck noose to our game, bring an American Flag to the Rebels game, if they show up it will be hilarious. Thanks for your perpetuation of the Confederacy nickname as well.
  • Speaking of the Rebels, I told John Tremmel I’d mention that he earned a spot on the Braves farm team. The only catch I’ve seen that was almost as sick as the one Campell made, was made by Tremmel, a basic Jim Edmonds over the shoulder type grab. Campbell’s was tougher, by a hair, and it was definitely in a more important game.
  • We won this one without our starting SS, our all-star catcher and Wojoton.
  • Is Wojoton headed to the DH role, given the emergence of Ken Griffey Kolaja Jr. in right?
  • How about three consecutive RBI by the 8, 9, 10 hitters: Murphy, Moore, Spagnola.
  • A Smith is hitting around .400 over the last couple games, the Ducks probably have the best Smith, Smith combination with Jesse and Adam.
  • Homa had a solid gam at third, and went 1-2 with a run scored.
  • Guthrie, the Ducks “other ” all-star pitcher, leads the team in ERA and is tied for first in wins. I think with two games left it’s about time we gave him the “C” on his jersey, we can use….Duck tape. WOOOOOOOOOOO

The Rakers are solid citizens, I wish I could root for them, but we’ve got a Wild Card race on our hands.

Batting Practice at 6pm at the pitt field tomorrow.

To clarify an earlier error, Bulldog Brian Strom can in fact pitch. I just feel he’s a better outfielder than a pitcher, that’s my assessment. He struck me out last year, never again.


Peaking at the right time.