With the Ducks (8-6-2, 6-1) leading 3 – 2 in the 4th, Ken Cool kit a bases clearing double to increase the lead to 6 – 2, and South Oakland of the North Side cruised to a 12 – 2 victory behind another strong pitching performance from Randy Patton.
Swartwout and Gwin had 3 hits a piece and every Duck reached base at least once.
Casale played an exceptional game at second, walked and scored 4 times and stole three bases.
On separate occasions, Begley was hit by a pitch and Moore walked and stole second.
The Ducks have won seven of their last nine games, and play Carrick again on Monday June 18th before resuming divisional play against a rejuvenated Black Sox team in Brookline on the 23rd.
The last time we played Carrick, we lost 11-10 in one of the worst baseball games i’ve been a part of.
Since that loss, we’ve gone 6-2.
There’s no reason we shouldn’t win this game if our pitchers throw strikes. Regradless of the meaningless nature of non-division games, it’s frustrating to be one the 2, for a 2-9 team, and I think overall record is taken into account for tie-breaking purposes should we finish tied with Ken Cool’s brother’s team in the division race.
We’ve lost twice by 15 runs this season so it’s not as if we can take any team lightly, these interdivision games have a way of getting out of hand, and who knows what kind of a mood the umpires will be in.
South Oakland of the North Side beat the Clinton Cherokee 12 – 7 Monday night to take first place in the Monongahela Division.
I wonder what was discussed in the huddles over there? the pre-game talk, two (I think) during the game, and the post-game speech by Clinton’s manager. Probably either the hollow, “we can’t take this team lightly.” Even though it was clear we were taken lightly, or “There’s no way we should lose to this team, they’re horrible. Look at our pants and look at their pants the don’t all match. I love our uniforms they are so sick!”
Or not. I mean, i could be way off base, but whatever their coach was trying to get accross it didn’t take.
Immediately the game had a weird feel to it.The city actualy fixed the lights and dragged the field.
Ducks catcher Ken Cool threw out a runner to end the first. Clinton led 1-0.
In the bottom of the first, Ducks firstbaseman Bobby Swartwout hit a two-run home run and South Oakland wouldn’t trail for the rest of the game.
The Baumgartel/Fago duel started with Baum almost Baconating one to right center, but Roberts made a tough catch at the track.
We scored a run in the second.
Fago picked off a guy at first.
Jesse Ferko and TJ Morgan started hitting doubles.
We had the bases loaded with 1 out in the third, and got one run across.
after three: Ducks 4, Clinton 1.
Then we scored five in the fourth.
Morgan led off with a double Ferko walked, and Roberts bunted for a baseh hit.
Doyle was pulled.
It gets blurry for me at this point. This game was the best the offense has looked all season.
Tessyier came into the game on short rest.
Casale and Houseman came through with back to back singles.
Ken Cool lined out to the wall in left, Gwin flew out to right and Swartwout drove in another run with, I think, a double.
9 – 1, Ducks after four.
the game was stopped to acknowledge Morgan’s first three-hit game as a Duck.
Clinton scored four in the top of the fifth. Baumgartel walked, I threw a ball backwards, there were a couple walks, but we worked out of it. Lead preserved.
9-5, Ducks through four-and-a-half.
In the bottom of the fifth Gwin lead off with a double, Swartwout reached on an error when Gwin was caught in a rundown and pegged in the back. Fago reached on an error. Jesse Ferko hit a bases clearing triple.
South Oakland led 12-5 after five. Fago retired the side in order in the sixth getting Baumgartel to groundout to end their individual battle for the evening.
They put some other kid in to pitch the sixth, he was effective.
The Cherokee scored two in the seventh but the Ducks held on for a five run victory.
***
From what Ken Cool tells me, the Cherokee coach still gives us no credit for putting 12 runs across in this game, and taking advantage of the numerous, uncharacteristic Clinton miscues.
They may not have given us their best, but that has nothing to do with us.
I don’t have the book, but I think six Ducks starters had multiple hits in this game, Ferko, Morgan and Houseman each had 3.
We have three non-division games before we play the Black Sox on the 23rd.
Elliot (9-2, 4-0) is separating itself from the rest of the Allegheny Division and has the best record in the league. The Ducks are looking to avenge an opening day 7-1 loss to Elliot.
This league has a very high percentage of teams not ending in ‘s.’ – elliot, militia, cranberry, black sox, cherokee. Five out of eight in the AA division. However, in the A division all of the teams do in fact end in ‘s.’ interesting. The Chris Wojton-led Devils won 24 to 9 over the weekend. That game couldn’t have been fun for anyone, certainly not the umpires. I can’t imagine how big the strike zone must have been in the fourth or fifth inning.
The Black Sox dropped three straight to Ken Cool’s brother’s team this weekend (with a ruling on a rain-shortened game pending).
It’s like someone died in Brookline.
I don’t think anyone would have thought Cranberry and the Black Sox would be battling it out for a playoff spot.
There’s a lot of baseball left, but at 5-1 halfway through our divisional schedule the Ducks are in a good spot.
We’ve had different guys come up big in key situations, and the pitching has improved greatly.
We still haven’t played our best baseball yet.
South Oakland and Elliot both have division games coming up on Wed. We’ll see how this plays out tonight.
Ducks pitcher Robert Patton (2-0) earned his second straight victory, allowing 1 ER over five innings, to lead South Oakland of the North Side (5-1, 6-5-2) past Cranberry (1-3, 4-8) Saturday afternoon.
Cranberry scored a run early with a two out rally in the bottom of the first on a walk and two singles. South Oakland took the lead in the third when with two out, Guthrie singled, Ken Cool was hit by a pitch, and a past ball moved the runners to second and third. Gwin singled in Ken Cool and Guthrie to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth, South Oakland scored two more runs on an almost identical series of events. Guthrie walked with two outs. Ken Cool singled and Guthrie advance to third. Ken Cool stole second and Gwin singled in Guthrie and Ken Cool to put the Ducks up 4-1.
Cranberry made it interesting with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth, the inning ended when Fago threw out a guy trying to steal second.
In the sixth, with runners on first and second and no body out, Ducks first baseman Bobby Swartwout threw out a Cranberry runner at third on a botched sacrifice attempt, then made a nice over the shoulder catch on a pop-up and doubled off the guy at first to end the inning.
Cranberry stranded runners on second and third to end the game.
Ducks outfielder TJ Morgan went 3-for-3 on the day.
***
Earlier in the year we were letting leads slip away into ties, and ridiculous 11-10 losses. It’s good to hold on and win tight games.
Yesterday the Black Sox dropped both games to Clinton, and fell to 0-4 in the division, with another game against the 3-1 Cherokee today at 3pm.
With the Black Sox at 0-4, and Cranberry at 1-3 and those two teams still facing each other three more times, we’ve almost clinched a playoff spot.
I’m really surprised to see Kenny Powers and Brookline in last place.
South Oakland plays Elliot Monday night at 9pm before a huge game against the Cherokee Wednesday night at home with first place on the line.
South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (4 -1, 5-5-2)
at
Cranberry (1-2, 4-7)
2pm
North Boundary Park
As of 9:42 we’re playing, I imagine the field up there has dried out, and will be playable at 2pm.
I’m sure the infield will be quick…
After a season and a half Cranberry still doesn’t have a mascot, I think that could be holding them back.
We can put some pressure on the rest of the division today with a win. To the amazement of others around the league, our team is in first place going into our sixth division game, and competing for a first round bye.
Despite our 2 – 0 record against Cranberry, they’re a tough team that has definitely improved from last year. The lineup they put on the field wed was almost entirely different from the first game we played this season, so we’ll see how it plays out.
We can’t look past this game.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Sox/Cherokee marathon doubleheader goes today, how Clinton handles their staff with 3 division games in 4 days.
Patton and Captain America will see give us some innings today.
Bobby Swartwout (sp) drove in three runs, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single off the wall to lead South Oakland (4-1, 5-5-2) past Cranberry Wednesday night. Ducks pitcher James Fago allowed one unearned run over six innings, holding Cranberry to 3 hits and recording an estimated 9 Ks. I have now gone from spelling out numbers to writing them as numerals.
Cranberry scored their run early on a walk, a hit batter, a past ball and an error in some order.
The Ducks tied the game in the third when Ken Cool doubled and scored from second on an infield hit by Gwin who reached third on a double by our new utility infielder. Fago walked and scored on Swartwout’s bases clearing double.
South Oakland added another run on a sac fly by centerfielder TJ Morgan.
I don’t know where we’d be without Morgan this season, and I’m at a complete loss as to how we scored our other run. I think a groundout.
Robert Patton pitched a perfect seventh to preserve the victory.
There are still players on our team who haven’t met each other. There are at least four guys whose names i don’t know, and may never know, but after a brutal start that included a 17 – 1 loss to the Bulldogs, we’re playing better baseball.
We have another important division game against Cranberry Saturday 2pm, at North Boundary Park.
It looks like the league this year is incredibly balanced. That, combined with the meaninglessness of the non-division games, has lead to a lot of decent but not spectacular records.
Cranberry beat the Black Sox last weekend making our division race much tighter, and the games this week even more important.
The Cherokee play the Black Sox in what looks like a home and home double header on Saturday 3:30 in the twilight zone and 9pm at Moore Park. Wild scheduling – Kenny Powers does not want to fall to 0 – 4 in divisional play, and Ken Cool’s brother definitely wants the Cherokee to bury Brookline. I guess it’s in our best interest to root for a split there. I don’t know.
There will be intense baseball down the stretch for sure.
Thank god we won’t have to go back to Findlay in the regular season. The field is fine, but the lack of shade makes me dizzy thinking about it.
Two Big games this week vs Cranberry: Wed, 9pm at SpringView, and Saturday, 2pm at North Boundary Park. We’ve got a chance to get over .500 overall and go to 5 -1 in the division.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 