The 2013 south oakland ducks roster is nearly set. Everything hinges on a couple pitchers.
TJ Morgan has been named manager, and will make all the in-game decisions. Mark Guthrie is in charge of finances. Garrett Moore is in charge of the bases and helmets.
I will play left field.
we’ll pull it together and be competitive again.
Ken Cool’s jersey will be retired when the ducks play the indians.
no idea how to get rid of this ad.
quack
South Oakland Ducks
at
Elliot
6pm
Herschel Park
***
We’re 1-7 all time against Elliot. The only win coming in game 2 of last year’s finals before we lost the series in three games.
As far as I’m concerned we’re playing with house money at this point.
Given the injuries we’ve suffered this season and all the unnecessary drama that has gone down, we can go out and play like we have nothing to lose. No one expects us to get out of this round. A win this evening will put us in great position.
Bad News for Elliot.
Anthony DeFilippo drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh and James Fago pitched a complete game for the victory. scattering 4 hits and one walk to lead South Oakland to the victory over the Monroeville Militia Sunday night.
The Militia led 1-0 when Dan Stell scored on an RBI triple by Lombardi in the top of the fourth.
The Ducks answered in the bottom half of the inning when Jesse Ferko reached after a strikeout and a dropped third strike, stole second, advanced to third on a past ball, and then stole home.
it was technically a past ball, but that backstop is six inches behind the plate. Still a great hustle play.
The Ducks pushed the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth: Bob Swartwout hustled out a ground ball to deep short and reached on an error by the first baseman, Fago singled, and after both runners advanced on a past ball, TJ Morgan delivered a 2-run single.
The Militia tied the game at 3 in the top of the seventh on a two-run, two out double by Banner.
In the bottom of the seventh Gwin led off with a bunt single, advanced to second on a past ball, and scored the winning run on DeFilippo’s single to center.
The Militia’s starting pitcher Joe Stupka left South Oakland earlier in the season due to scheduling conflicts, and struck out 15 Ducks in the loss.
What a game.
This recap in no way does justice to how tense and well played the game was.
South Oakland will play Elliot in a best of three series in the league semifinals starting this weekend.
Quack.
Fago
Bad News for the Militia.
South Oakland opens the 2012 postseason against the Monroeville Militia Sunday July 22nd, 8:30pm at Moore Park.
The All-Star starters are up on the league home page.
Interesting how last-place Cranberry has 4 starters compared to the Ducks and Black Sox who have one apiece.
From our team I nominated Fago, Ken Cool, Morgan and Swartwout. Who will represent us at the all-star game in August if they choose.
Cases could be made for Houseman and me based on the numbers and Houseman being sick at fielding. But i’m not about to vote for myself, certainly not to start over whatever low-A prospect Clinton has in left field, and for some reason I thought Elliot was in our division and Wes White was a more deserving starter at SS. Sorry, House, for not knowing what teams are in our division.
I think we need a return to the mid-season all-star game next year so people actually show up. That was a lot of fun a couple years back, despite coach Kenny Powers not getting me an at-bat.
Apparently the Rebels and Warriors game last week ended in a fight with police called.
I forget the details. Hopefully they meet in the A championship and it’s really intense.
***
The Ducks Elliot game will not be rescheduled. We tried, but the weather and field availability worked against us. I would’ve liked to get some at bats before sunday.
Anyway…
After a brutal off-season and losing pitchers upon pitchers for a variety of reasons, the Ducks finished the regular season 11-10-2 and 8-4 in the division.
Good for fourth overall and second in the Monongahela.
We will be the home team on Sunday.
If I had known the 2-seeds were going to switch brackets, it would have been a lot tougher to release Stupka to the Militia. Ethically I made the right decision.
If both teams have everyone show up on Sunday night, it’s going to be a great game.
More tomorrow.
quack.
James Fago hit a walk off two-run single in the bottom of the seventh to lead South Oakland past Cranberry Wednesday night. South Oakland (8-1, 11-6-2) led 5-2 after the first inning, but Cranberry (1-7, 6-13) scored 1 run in the third, fifth and sixth innings to tie the game at 5 and took a 6-5 lead in the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh with one out, Casale and Johnston hit back to back singles, then Morgan walked to load the bases for Fago who ended the game with a single to center.
With three division games remaining, the Ducks lead the Cherokee (6-3, 13-6) by 2 games.
The Cherokee have two games left against Cranberry and one against us.
We have two against the Black Sox and one against the Cherokee.
We lead the season series 2-1 over the Cherokee.
I’m pretty sure if we finish tied we lose the tie breaker.
Notes: Bring back Right Down Broadway. The plate ump last night was unspectacular.
The kid who pitched for Cranberry threw well. He also hit a solo home run in the first.
Good teams win close games. Cranberry had a chance to steal one, and I think it was Guthrie and TJ Morgan’s veteran leadership that pulled South Oakland through last night.
It’s going to be a battle for the last playoff spot between the Black Sox (2-6) and Cranberry (1-7).
South Oakland has won four straight and ten of twelve since starting 1-4-2
The Ducks are off until Monday when we play the Black Sox at home.
Quack.
Tonight the Ducks will attempt to sweep Cranberry, and win another important division game.
A victory puts us two games up on the Cherokee with three to play.
We control our own destiny.
After that 17-1 loss to the bulldogs in the third game of the season, and the 11-10 loss to Carrick the following, it’s incredible we’re in this position.
We’re undefeated in division games at home this season.
Bad News for Cranberry.
South Oakland (7-1, 10-6-2) defeated the Brookline Black Sox(2-6, 7-10) and long-time nemesis pitcher Pete Chalfin, by a score of 5-2 Saturday night to clinch at least the second seed in the Monongahela Division.
I wasn’t at the game, but apparently Fago hit a triple and Swartwout put one off the wall in right center, which is about a 400 ft shot. Ken Cool, I’m sure, was dominant.
Fago pitched a complete game and hit double digit strikeouts.
We were without four starters for this one.
Apparently, Saturday night was Chalfin’s last game in the league as he is moving somewhere to do something to better his life, so good for him and for the Ducks. He was one of the toughest pitchers I’ve faced, one of the few guys I really don’t like hitting against. Not that that means a lot coming from a guy who’s primary offensive weapons are the flare to right, and leaning in to inside curveballs, but players far better than I will tell you Pete was a tough competitor and made the Black Sox a lot better. He was also an avid reader and commentator on the blog, back when people avidly read and commented. So thanks for that, Pete.
Two of the most memorable and crushing Ducks losses came at the hands of Chalfin and the Black Sox, a 1-0 thriller in 2009 when he dueled it out with Mike Fletcher, and a 5-4 ten-inning affair in the 2009 playoffs the year the Black Sox upset the Owlz, and lost to the Hurricanes in the finals.
Two of the Ducks biggest wins were over Chalfin: Guthrie defeated Chalfin to clinch the Championship for the Ducks in 2010, and this year Fago out-pitched him to earn South Oakland a playoff spot and keep us out in front of the Cherokee in the division race. I’m glad we could send him out with a loss. Take that splitter and don’t come back.
*
Huge win last night for South Oakland. Now the Black Sox are playing for their playoff lives, without their ace, and we’re in the driver’s seat for the division having won nine of eleven.
The Ducks next game is wed night at home against Cranberry.
Quack.
Typically the Black Sox start slow and pull it together 1/4 of the way through the season. It’s taken longer this year, but they’ll be tough tonight. Especially at home.
Our victory over Brookline earlier this season was our 4th straight regular season win over the Black Sox dating back to last season.
And it was the first time in a long time the Ducks and Sox met with both teams under .500.
The Ducks have won 8 of our last 10, getting it together a bit earlier that Brookline this year, after a similarly rough start.
Since dropping 3 straight to the Cherokee, the Black Sox have won 4 straight.
Kenny Powers must be coachin’ ’em up down there, or over there, whichever.
We can clinch a playoff spot and the second seed in the division with a win tonight, plus we’d gain a half game on the idle Cherokee. A Cranberry loss tomorrow would also clinch us a spot, but hopefully they beat Clinton.
The Ducks-Sox rivalry has been kind of lost in the shuffle with Ken Cool’s brother seceding from the Ducks with two-thrids of our pitching staff, but tonight in Moore Park it’ll be in full swing. I love playing there those fans make it feel like our games matter in a way that adult-league baseball in June normally doesn’t.
We can write ourselves a great story for this season if we keep winning and take the division, a win tonight gets us a lot closer.
Bad News for the Black Sox
James Fago went 3-for-3 with 3RBI and Randy Patton earned his third consecutive win to lead South Oakland (9-6-2) to a 5 – 1 victory over the Carrick Express (2-13-1) Monday night.
Ken Cool and Gwin opened the game with back to back hits, Swartwout scored Cool on a sac fly and Fago doubled home Gwin to put South Oakland up 2-0.
The Express scored in the fourth to cut the lead in half, then Fago drove in two runs with a single to left in the top of the fifth inning.
The Ducks fifth run came when Tony Casale scored from second on a 6-4 fielder’s choice.
***
Some notes:
We’d be dead in the water without Randy and Jared, both of whom we picked up off waivers and have pitched well for us. Randy hasn’t lost in three starts.
Tony Casale is playing the best baseball i’ve seen from him since he joined the Ducks in ’08, and he and Houseman have been fantastic up the middle.
We’ve won eight of our last ten.
It’s probably going to take a 10-2 division record for us to win the division, unless Cranberry beats Clinton in one of their remaining three matchups.
We play Brookline in Brookline Saturday night then Cranberry next wed, before we finish Black Sox-Cherokee-Black Sox.
South Oakland’s magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 1.
quack
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 