amateur baseball

Game Seven Recap. Strom Thurmond’s corpse: Ducks 14, Senators 5

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, Recap

senators steven segal

The Senators jumped out to an early lead after Joseph McCarthy led off the game with a double, stole third, exploited America’s fear of communism, and scored on a fielder’s choice.

In the bottom of the first, after a single and two walks loaded the bases, Brandon Culp struck a blow for America and took Jesse Helms deep.

helms

The Ducks scored another run in the inning on Bob Faust’s fielder’s choice.

5-1 Ducks after 1.

The Senators kept the game close for an inning, when they added two runs in the second off an error on a potential double play ball hit by Rick Santorum.

communion pants

Santorum supports the above slogan.

The score remained 5-3 until the bottom of the third when South Oakland blew it open.

iceburgh

Iceberg doubled off the wall to start the inning, Dover singled the Ducks’ catcher to third then Faust walked, and Sorosky singled in a run to put the Ducks up 6-3. Gwin walked to load the bases with 2 outs for Ciccone who hit the Ducks’ second grand slam of the game and chased starting pitcher Ted Kennedy.

carinwater

10-3 Ducks after 3.

Riley made a diving catch in right in the fourth, then got lost on his way to center field in the fifth. Dorsek played an inning without his hat for some reason then pinch ran. Fetter threw a six-pitch inning in relief.

Alexander Daigle made an appearance. The Senators scored two more to make it 10-5 after 5.

daigle94sl-1

In the bottom of the sixth, the Ducks added three insurance runs on a double, two singles, an error, and a sac fly.

Ciccone retired the side in the seventh to end the game.

There was pizza and beer.

duck pnc

Misc:

  • Lost in all the grand slamming was a solid outing by TC, and a pretty clean game by our starting defense.
  • Our smaller home field may have helped with one of the home runs, but it also kept a few really hard hit balls in the gap to singles. It’s also not very easy to see at the plate.
  • The strike zone has been really wide all year.
  • Swetz only hits with runners on base. Our three through seven hitters had the following stats:
  • Ciccone: 2 for 3, BB, HR, 2B, 4 RBI
  • Culp: 2 for 4, HR, 2SB, 5 RBI
  • Swetz: 0 for 4, RE, R, 0 LOB
  • Galvanek: 3 for 4, 2B, SB, RBI
  • Dover: 3 for 3, 2B, SF, RBI
  • If our two hitter would get on base more, we’d be in even better shape.

quack

Game Six Recap: Dr. Strangeglove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love Brian Strom.

2014 South Oakland Ducks, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks starter Brian Strom (w, 2-1) scattered 8 hits, walking 3 and beaning 4 batters over six strong innings of 2-run ball Sunday night in Moore Park, helping South Oakland (4-2) diffuse the Allegheny offense en route to an 8-2 Ducks victory.

Playing without the strong-bearded veteran leadership of the Commish, the Bombers (3-1) looked flustered out of the gate.

This guy took the hill for Allegheny*.

Bomberman_by_Gaston25

He allowed back to back doubles to Gwin and Culp and the Ducks jumped out to an early 1-0 lead. Culp stole third, Strom drew a walk. Matt Swetz collected his unofficial, team-leading 7th RBI of the season with a single to right.

2014-05-04 20.19.58

 one at a time. sometimes two at a time

Sorosky, formerly of the militia has been waiting for a chance to take out the Bombers for three years. He delivered a single to left to put the Ducks up 3-0.

Garrett Moore drove in a run with a single up the middle. 4-0 Ducks.

-Soul-Eater-Excalibur-Fresh-New-Hd-Wallpaper--

This is the best exclaimer image I could find.

With one out and runners on first and second, Alex Riley hit a ground ball to the shortstop who got the force at second. Moore sacrificed his pants with a hard slide and forced an arrant throw. Sorosky tried to score from second on the play, but the ball bounced hard off the wall behind first and came right back to the first baseman who blew up Sorosky at the plate. Classic 6-4-3-2 Double play.

communion pants

Who’s laughing now? Those communion pants were durable.

Strom faced 5 batters in the first and stranded runners on second and third after striking out some guy to end the inning.

The Bombers scored 2 in the second, but Strom pitched out of another jam and the Bombers left the bases loaded.

The Bombers third baseman can hit a little.

Timmy

Meanwhile, the Bombers pitcher had settled in and was in the process of retiring 9 straight Ducks with the help of a 4-6-3 double play. Judging by the Allegheny reaction, it was the first good play their infield ever made.

Fetter singled to lead off the fifth. He actually defused bombs in the military. After a Casale sac bunt, Gwin singled in pinch runner Shawn Dorsek to make the score 5-2 in the fifth.

In the bottom of the fifth, Strom allowed a triple a walk and struck out the side.  The Bombers could not get a big hit.

In the bottom of the sixth, with Bombers on first and second, Tony Casale made a sick diving play in the hole between third and short to get the force at third. Best play by a shortstop made in the game. Two groundouts later, the Bombers again left two men on base with nothing to show for it.

In the top of the seventh, The Ducks scored three runs on five hits to put it out of reach. Strom, Sorosky and Moore had RBI.

Fetter pitched the bottom of the 7th and struck out the Bomber’s 3rd baseman looking, then induced a double play to end the game.

donaldduckbomb

***

  • Big early season win for the Ducks, missing a handful of regulars.
  • That ump called strikes a foot off the plate.
  • I love playing at Moore Park.
  • I think there will be 3 more good games between the Ducks and Bombers.
  • For a bunch of kids who have no idea how cruel and grim the world after college will be, the Bombers carry themselves well, and are probably laughing at my dated references on some weird, next-level social media platform that I will never understand.
  • I found an orange and gray hoodie someone left after the game.
  • Stanley Kubrick.
  • Don’t google “suicide bomber images.” It will make you sick.

South Oakland’s next game is Wednsday night 8pm at Springview Field vs. the Senators.

quack.

Ducks Win

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Garrett Moore’s pants went 2-for-4 with 3rbi to lead the shorthanded South Oakland Ducks (4-2) to an 8-2 win over the Allegheny Bombers (3-1).

The schedule is up on the league site.

South Oakland plays next Wednsday night 8pm at Springview Field

Full recap to follow.

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Game Day 6: Ducks at Bombers

2014 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (3-2)

vs.

Allegheny Bombers (3-0)

9pm

Moore Park

The standings are now almost updated, basically. It’s the Bombers at the top, a bunch of teams in the middle with the Warriors and Senators still struggling to get into the win column.

The Ducks are coming off a frustrating walk-off loss the the WOLFPACK!!!

Unknown

The Bombers swept the Monsters in a doubleheader last week, and apparently celebrate drone warfare and/or ted kaczynski.

Fascists.

iceberg

South Oakland will be a down a few players tonight, but RBI collector, Matt Swetz is expected to make his return to the lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury and closing bartending shifts.

South Oakland is undefeated when Swetz drives in a run.

blown away jeff bridges

Bad News for the Bombers.

Ducks Lose. 5-1

2014 South Oakland Ducks, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

The Monsters (3-0) scored a run in the first on a misplayed fly ball, three unearned runs in the second, and another in the third. Monongahela lead 5-0 forever. They threw some sidearm guy and the ump had a huge zone, benefitting both pitchers. It felt like the Monsters had runners on base all game. They didn’t exactly ‘mash’ but a couple of them hit doubles and they had a consistent lineup.

Mostly they put it in play and we kicked it around. None of their errors cost them runs. Not our best night. I look forward to playing them again.

Twice the Ducks (3-1) had runners on second and third with one out, and couldn’t get a key hit. With one out in the third, Mike Brandt was hit by a pitch then Garrett Moore had a sweet double to left center, but was doubled off on Casale’s line out to right, ending the threat. South Oakland scored a run in the sixth on a Casale walk and stolen base followed by two ground outs.

I like that team, because their coach already entered the score in the website. Probably took him less than a minute. What happened in the Lions/Titans doubleheader on the 13th? No one knows because the scores haven’t been entered, and so we don’t know the standings. Great.

South Oakland plays next on Sunday night against the Wolfpack, 8:30pm at John Herb Field.

quack.

Game Day 4: Ducks vs. Monsters

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (3-0)

vs.

Monongahela Monsters (2-0)

8pm

Springview field

Blog posts will get better as we build rivalries, and someone else start writing them.

South Oakland looks to remain unbeaten and extend its winning streak to four tonight against the second place Monsters.

SONY DSC

The Monsters beat the Warriors 7-1, and the Senators 11-1.

It should be an even matchup.

I hope they have awesome glow-in-the-dark unis like this:

Monsters

May be women’s softball jerseys. Even better.

These kids took down the most haunting monster of my childhood.

stephen-kings-it-04

Bad News for the Monsters.

Ducks Win 8-2

2014 South Oakland Ducks

Ducks 8

Senators 2

When I googled “communion pants,” this was the best image that showed up

communion pants

Weird.

@Duckpond2014

#communionpants

Jason Fetter pitched a complete game for the win, allowing 0 earned runs 5 hits, striking out 8.

South Oakland scored a run in the first inning on a single, sac bunt, WP/throwing error. The Ducks stranded the bases loaded in the second. The score remained 1-0 until  the 4th inning when RBI collector Matt Swetz drove in 2 with an almost-triple in which he hit a ball to the left center gap, stumbled around first advanced to second and then moved to third on a throwing error.

In the fifth, South Oakland scored five runs and put it out of reach. Brian Strom drove in 2 with a double to left. later in the inning, DJ Dover tripled in two more runs, and scored on Sorosky’s RBI ground out.

The Senators scored 2 unearned runs. one in the bottom of the fifth, and one in the seventh. If we can cut down on errors we will be tough to beat.

giant ducks

Some other things:

I entered our stats, but the league site isn’t calculating ABs correctly. We’re hitting well, but we don’t have 3 guys hitting 1.000.

If we ever have all 19 players show up at once, I’m going to have a heart attack. It’s hard enough getting 14 guys in to a game and spread out the playing time in a way that allows us to still win games. I forgot how much of a pain in the ass that is.

How have managers not entered scores for games that happened weeks ago? It takes literally 30 seconds.

South Oakland next plays on Wednesday, 8pm at Springview Field.

Here’s an awesome Easter pic for everyone.

Peep Guillotine

quackquackquack

 

Game Day 3: Ducks at Senators

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-0)

at

Senators (0-2)

12pm

Pie Traynor Field

South Oakland has won two straight and looks to remain undefeated in the season’s early going.

The Senators didn’t do very well last year. Better than the House, but still bad. Allowing 186 runs in 24 games, stalling bills with filibusters, and taking kickbacks from lobbyists.

senator

I prefer Radek Bonk

bonk

Bad News for the Senators.

Ben Hartranft’s Clean Game at First Base Leads Ducks to 6-4 Victory

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland improved to 2-0 on the season with a 6-4 win over North America.

The Ducks scored 3 in the bottom of the first. Casale and Gwin Singled to start the game putting runners on first and third with no outs. Casale scored on a double steal. Culp singled in Gwin, and advanced to third when Swetz singled to right. Ben Hartranft scored Culp with a sac fly to center.

The Lions scored an unearned run in the top of the second. Ben Hartranft threw out a guy at the plate.

The Lions ran into some outs. Runners on first and second, there was a past ball and only the runner on first tried to advance and the Ducks got an out on a 2-5-4 putout.

With a runner on second in the third, a ground ball to the left side resulted in a 5-6 putout.

After taking a 4-3 lead in the fifth after a dropped fly ball by the Ducks, North America had runners on first and third with 2 outs  and tried to get in a rundown between first and second to allow the runner on third to score but it didn’t work.

Some guy tried to stretch a single and was thrown out at second.

North America threw two good pitchers, and the starter settled in after a rough first innings. South Oakland trailed 4-3 going into the bottom of the fifth.

Faust singled to start the fifth, and took second on a past ball. After a pair of strikeouts, Gwin walked. Then the Lions pitcher went from the windup for some reason, allowing Gwin and Faust to advance. Ciccone drove in 2 with a single to right. Then Culp chased their starter with a double off the wall in right center.

The Lions would only reach base once in the sixth and seventh. Ciccone struck out their 2-hitter to end the game.

Some stats:

  • TC Jones: 2IP, 2H 3BB, 2R, 0ER, 2K
  • Culp: 2-for-3, 2B, RBI, R
  • Ciccone (W) 2-for-3, 2RBI, R, 5IP, 3H, 2BB, 4K, 2R 0ER
  • Faust: 1-for-3, R, SB
  • Hartranft: 0-1, sac fly, HBP
  • Swetz, 2-for-3
  • Gwin: 1-for-2, BB, 2SB, 2R

Notes:

  • North America will be tough this season. I can see them and the Wolfpack getting into a fight over which is the more dominant land mammal.
  • That win felt good.
  • Where are these 3 pitchers I drafted?
  • Moore made a sweet catch in right n in which he pinned a ball of his chest. the bruise is spectacular.
  • Faust had his first hit as a Duck since 2006.
  • This is South Oakland’s first 2-0 start since 2009. I think. We’ve won games and everyone has played in every game. We still haven’t had our full compliment of players yet.
  • It’s a real good atmosphere in our dugout.
  • Gotta love how their pitcher bitched out their shortstop in the first inning for missing a tag, then went from the windup with guys on first and second in a one-run game in the fifth.
  • So much kitty litter. There’s probably a Lion joke there
  • WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South Oakland plays next on Saturday at 12pm up at Pie Traynor. Might be scrambling for guys over Easter Weekend.

Follow us on twitter @duckpond2014

quack, quack.