amateur baseball

Game Day 8: Ducks at WOLFPACK

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (5-2)

at

West View WOLFPACK (3-3)

8:30PM

John Herb Field

The first place Ducks look to win their fourth straight game when they face rival West View in what should be a close game between two evenly matched teams. South Oakland beat West View 9-6 early this season, but the WOLFPACK!!! are tough at home. They have a loyal and vocal fan base.

Some history for the new guys:

 

The WOLFPACK eliminated us from the playoffs in the 2014 semis in a series that turned when we were kicked off that field in Jefferson Hills over a permit dispute the weekend of some country music concert. In the rescheduled game, Strom was perfect through 3 innings before Donnie was thrown out at the plate and accidentally ran into their catcher. Benches cleared, as they do sometimes in adult league sports. They came back from a 1-0 series deficit to beat us in 3 games. Fetter blew out his knee and moved off the grid to southern California, never to be heard from again.

94b3r

They are always tough. John Herb is one of the nicest fields we get to play on, and it’s always in great shape. This game will pit the veteran savvy of the Ducks against the youth of West View.

doc naba

 Bad News for the WOLFPACK

 

 

Ducks Win. South Oakland 15, Devils 5 (5 inn.)

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland of the North Side (5-2) won its third straight game, defeating the South Hills Devils (2-4) by a score of 15-5 Wednesday night in Spring Hill.

Doc_Brown

Doc Brown (2-0) relieved starter Brian Strom in the third and pitched two and a third scoreless innings for the victory. Strom (ND) allowed one earned run, struck out one and did not bean the Devils catcher.

Erik Tuomisto went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a single and 3RBI and made a spectacular diving catch with the bases loaded and two out with runners on in the fourth. Brian Strom, batting in the eleventh spot in the order, went 2-for-2 with 2RBI. Casale went 2-for-2 with a walk and 3 runs scored, and made the defensive play of the game. On what looked like a sure single up the middle, he made a diving stop and threw the runner out from his knees. Ducks outfielder TJ Morgan was hit by a pitch and threw out a guy at second.

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South Oakland started slow, possibly still in shock that the field was in such good shape, and kicked the ball around in the first couple innings. The Devils jumped out to a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the third.

The Ducks scored two in the bottom of the third on an RBI ground out and a single. In the 4th inning, the Ducks scored three runs with two outs to take a 6-5 lead.

Wojton Clan

Then in the bottom of the fifth, South Oakland chased the South Hills starter, and scored 9 runs. The Ducks drew five straight walks off the Devils situational lefty, followed by a strikeout, a single, two more walks, another single and an almost grand slam by Tuomisto that lined into the ivy covering the centerfield wall for a double. The game ended on a bases loaded walk to Zuzak.

Game Day [10]: Ducks (6-3) vs Bulldogs (3-3)

After playing seven games in 18 days, the Ducks are tied for first place with a record of 5-2. Aside from the yet-to-be-rescheduled Express rainout, the schedule thins out a little for the next month or so, and our pitching will be back from honey mooning/the disabled list. It’s early, but things are setting up well for us. I like our depth.

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South Oakland’s next game is Sunday night, 8:30pm at John Herb Field vs. the WOLFPACK!!!

 

 

Ducks Win

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland of the North Side (4-2) beat the South Side Eagles (2-4) by a score of 10-7 in an ugly win at Herschel Park.

Chuck Zuzak (3-2) pitched five strong innings for the win, and Tuomisto faced two batters for the save. Tuomisto doubled and drove in 2, Strom had 2RBI and both Gwin and Brandt drove in a runs via hit by pitch.

According to the schedule we should have been visitors this game, but the Eagles insisted we were the home team, and then we played the first two innings with those weird rubber coated baseballs supplied by South Side. Shrewd move on the Eagles part, as it might have prevented a home run by Tuomisto during the Ducks seven run first inning.

The Eagles fought back, scoring two in the 4th and one in the 5th. South Oakland scored three more in the fifth and held off a late Eagles rally.

Ben Sorosky was caught stealing.

South Oakland is now in first place after six games, but several teams have played 4 or fewer games. Shaler has only played twice so far. We’ve played everyone but Shaler, and it doesn’t look like anyone is going to run away with it. Double A should be the most competitive division the season.

The Ducks next game is 8pm Monday night in Carrick against the Express.

 

 

 

Express Yourself. Ducks Win: 4-3

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland of the North Side (3-2) beat the Carrick Express (2-2) by a score of 4-3, behind a strong start by ageless wonder, Brian Strom and a game winning RBI by Andy Nichols in Spring Hill last night.

The Ducks lead 3-0 going into the top of the seventh, then Carrick tied it after four walks, a single and two ground outs.

Then a day after losing on a walk-off single to the Oilers, South Oakland came back and won in the seventh after Mike Brandt singled, to lead off the inning and pinch runner Musisko advanced to second on a ground out and scored on Nichols ground ball that was misplayed by Carrick’s short stop.

The game marked Ben Sorosky’s first win as Ducks interim manager.

South Oakland’s next game is this Saturday 12pm at Herschel Field against the Eagles

Game Day 5; Ducks vs Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-2)

vs.

Carrick Express (2-0)

9PM

Springview Field

South Oakland looks to bounce back after a tough walk-off loss to the Oilers against the Carrick tonight in Spring Hill. The Express are always tough and are under new leadership with the semi-retirement of NABA legend and former manager John Vernaccio. The Express are one of a few league teams with a singular noun as their mascot. Can anyone name the others?

Maybe Abe Lincoln will bring us some luck during primary season.

abraham-lincoln-antietam-battlefield

Bad News for the Express

 

 

Ducks Win. South Oakland 9, West View 6

Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland improved its record to 2-1, defeating the WOLFPACK (2-2) 9-6 in Spring Hill last night. Ducks starter, Chuck Zuzack (1-1) pitched four innings, scattering 9 hits, striking out 4. Catcher, Brandon Chartier went 3-for-3 with a walk, double and 2RBI and Andy Nichols went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and notched his first save of the season in relief.

The_Pack_Wolfpack_Party_coverThe game was back and forth all night, with West View scoring two runs in the top of the first. The Ducks tied the game in the bottom of the second when Zuzack drove in Chartier with an RBI E6 and Sorosky scored on Nichols walk.

The WOLFPACK scored two more in the top of the third, and the Ducks answered with another two runs in the bottom of the third on Chartier’s RBI double. West View added one in the top of the fourth and the Ducks took the lead in the bottom half of the inning on two singles, an error and a walk.

Peep Guillotine

The Ducks added one run in the fifth and two in the sixth. Musisko entered the game for Zuzack in the fifth and allowed one run in two innings of work, before Nichols recorded the save in the seventh.

***do-not-trust-ducks

I hope their second baseman’s leg is OK. He hurt it trying to make a sliding stop on a ball up the middle and it looked like his knee stuck and he had to be helped off the field. It’s terrible how much better shape the East End fields are in than Spring View. We need the gentrification to spread to Spring Hill and get some yuppie youth league playing there, and maybe that will change. We’ve been trying to find a better field for years, and haven’t been able to since the Oilers snagged Mellon out from under us in the great Ciccone defection of 2015.

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This was a big win over a good team. We battled. Erasing 3 different West View leads before they ran out of arms. We also had a lot of good at bats and made them throw a lot of pitches. Last season we dropped a few winnable games early while management figured out where everyone fit, so far we’ve avoided that.

RAMBO

Next game is Tuesday, 6:45 at Hebrew Oilers in Shady Side.

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Game Day 3: Ducks vs. WOLFPACK

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (1-1)

vs.

West View Wolfpack (2-1)

9pm

Spring View Field

South Oakland takes on West View at home tonight at 9pm. The WOLFPACK played three games over the weekend, including an early season split-double header. They split with the Eagles and beat Cranberry. They are always tough to play against and they travel well. This would be a big early season win over one of the top teams in the league and should give us a good idea of where we stand early on.

KellyLeak_cigBad News for the WOLFPACK

Game Day 1: Ducks at Devils

2016 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

at

South Hills Devils

12pm

Herschel Park

The Devils are another team that had a bad record last year, but managed to beat us for one of their few wins. They had the right to play in Single A this year, but chose to stay in Double A. Good for them. There are a bunch of guys on this team that I played 28+ Bulldogs with. Also, Chris Wojton is a beast. Who knows. Maybe they’ll be better this season.

Wojton Clan

We don’t have our full compliment of players on hand today, but we’ve got at least nine, so we’ve got a chance.

Bad News for the Devils