We are responsible for 40% of the Devils’ wins this season with a 1-2 overall record vs. South Hills. Pitching is thin for us tonight, but they’re coming off two games this weekend too, so it should even out. Who knows. We need someone to step up.
Bad News for the Devils
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side defeated BIG OIL 7-5 behind Brian Strom’s 3-for-3, 3 RBI night and another strong start from Zuzak (W, 4-1).
The Ducks jumped out to a 4-1 lead after three innings, the teams traded runs until the seventh, when the Oilers pulled to within 7-5 with two outs and a runner on second. Then Ducks relief pitcher Chris Heisler struck out their clean up hitter to end the game. Big time pitching.
Morgan drove in two runs for the Ducks and Sorosky laid down his team leading, second sac bunt of the season.
A. Ciccone went 3-for-4 with an RBI double, reached on an error and stole three bases in a losing effort.
South Oakland wins the season series against BIG OIL 2 to 1, and retains the Spring Hill Scooter, which was thrown at the home dugout during their loss to the Eagles a few weeks ago.
Chartier is holding the scooter. I’m holding Chartier’s arm in its socket.
The Ducks (10-7) have won four of their last five and are now in third place, 1.5 games behind West View (10-4) and half a game behind the Eagles (12-8).
The Duck’s next game is Wednesday night, 9PM at Spring Hill vs. the South Hills Devils.
quack
The Scooter will be in the building tonight.
Bad News for BIG OIL
South Oakland of the North Side defeated the Carrick Express 3-2 in a bizarrely officiated game, Saturday night in Carrick. DiPiaola (W, 4-1) threw his first complete game of the season for the victory. He struck out the last batter of the game. Brian Grundle pitched well for Carrick in the loss, also going seven innings and generally keeping the Ducks off balance.
The Ducks (9-7) scored three runs in the first and held Carrick (6-8) to two runs over the final six inning to hold on for the win.
We made key defensive plays to cut down the tying run at the plate on a chopper to the pitcher, and turned a double play to end a threat in the third. So far, we’ve won more close games than we’ve lost this season, which is the sign of a good team.
There were bad calls against both teams in this game, which is a shame because it was a well played and well pitched game that could have gone either way. The plate ump forgot the count and missed a fair/foul call on a potential double that went against the Ducks, and made a few bad calls on pitches against the Express. It probably evened out, but who knows. You can’t fix one call and then replay everything in a vacuum. The space time continuum would collapse on itself.
The Ducks play next on Tuesday night 6:45 at Mellon Park vs. the Oilers.
This is the second time in Ducks history, we’ve had a rain out that I couldn’t call off in time to avoid ump fees. Really thought the rain was gonna miss us. Fifteen minute downpour and it was all she wrote. We now have 2 games vs. the Express to reschedule.
South Oakland’s next game is Saturday, 8:00PM against the Express at Volunteer Field in Carrick.
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Big game tonight as the Ducks try to gain ground on the WOLFPACK and keep pace with BIG OIL and a resurgent Eagles team.
The standings are tighter than traffic on Sawmill Run Blvd.
A win puts us in a tie for second with the Oilers, and a loss drops us back into a three-way tie for fourth with the Express and Rebels, both of whom would have games in-hand.
We beat Carrick earlier this season on an Andy Nichols walk-off single. Figures to be another close one tonight.
Bad News for the Express
South Oakland (8-7) won game one 3-2 over Cranberry (5-8-1) behind a complete game victory by pitcher Chuck Zuzak and timely hitting and defense. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, Ducks utility player, Joe Graff doubled in two runs, and Chartier drove in another. Gwin was hit by a pitch in the fifth, increasing his team leading HBP count to 5. Cranberry’s second baseman made some good plays on defense. Cranberry scored a run in the sixth.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Ducks lead 3-2. Cranberry started the inning with a walk and a single by the 9 and 10 hitters to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Zuzak struck out the leadoff hitter. The next guy hit a hard grounder to third and Chartier threw the runner out at home. Then with runners on first and second and two out, the game ended on a spectacular play by shortstop Jon Moore who made a diving stop behind second base on what looked like a sure single, and flipping the ball to Sorosky at second base for the game-ending force out.
We ran out of pitching in the second game and walked a bunch of guys and started kicking the ball around. We are all old and would have benefitted from having some subs. I probably shouldn’t have rescheduled this one as a double header, but didn’t know we’d be missing everyone on a random June weekend. In game 2, Moore hit a triple, and Brandt stole home in the bottom of the seventh. Cranberry’s starting pitcher threw a magical game, hitting spots and keeping the Ducks off balance.
It’s frustrating to lose games to teams at the bottom of the standings because everyone is on vacation or whatever (two Devils losses and this one to Cranberry come to mind), but that’s part of the deal with summer league ball. These things probably even out over the course of the season. Maybe we catch a team that’s in the middle of a four games in five days stretch when they have their whole outfield one a cruise or some hipster beer sampling event, and we take advantage of it. Who knows. Every manager and every team in the league deals with it. Hopefully everyone makes the playoff games.
Big picture: We have nine games left including a game with Carrick we still have to reschedule. It’s going to be an exciting stretch run. Two big games against the Express this week. They have a worse record than their talent would indicate, possibly have struggled with attendance due to NHL playoffs.
Standings as of 6/13
2016 Playoff Bracket
Gotta avoid the play-in games.
South Oakland next plays 9PM Wednesday in Spring Hill vs. Carrick.
quack
The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side overcame deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 to defeat the South Side Eagles by a score of 13-5.
For a while this game felt like that time you waited outside Jacks for two hours on Christmas morning until it opened at 7AM so you could drink yourself down off that coke bender and numb the pain of another lonely holiday. The Eagles were running and hitting doubles and their starter was hitting spots. Then the Ducks put together a nine-run inning off that lefty and the super-enthusiastic third baseman.
South Side lead 5-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, and then the Ducks sent fourteen batters to the plate and scored nine runs, off two different relief pitchers.
Koshzow, Morgan, Graff, and Nichols all hit doubles. Dipaola had two hits, Petril went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Brandt drew a walk and went first to third on a single by Graff and later scored. Kirk Gibson went 1-for-2 with 2 walks and 2 RBI. he scored on an error by the Eagles third baseman to tie the game at 3 in the third inning.
Gutsy efforts by Heisler and DiPaola (W, 3-1) on the mound, both pitched hurt and gave us a chance to win on a night when they didn’t have their best stuff.
With the win, the Ducks record improves to 7-6 and gives them the head-to-head tie breaker over the Eagles (8-6).
We are still right in the division race. We need to finish at least fourth to avoid the paly-in game. First or second will get us a bye to the winners bracket semi-finals in the double elimination tourney.
South Oakland has a double header against Cranberry (2-9-1) this Saturday starting at 2:30pm, game 2 immediately to follow.
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The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (6-6) lost 7-5 to the South Hills Devils (5-6) Saturday at Herschel Field. Ducks pitchers walked eleven batters over six innings and the Devils had a few timely hits.
Trailing 4-0 going into the third, South Oakland rallied and brought the score to 4-3 when Strom singled in a run and Gwin scored on an error and TJ Morgan doubled.
Gwin was later caught in a rundown and picked off trying to steal second.
The Devils added a run in the bottom of the inning, and two more insurance runs in the fifth.
In the top of the sixth, Jimmy Moore drove in a run with a solid hit-by-pitch and McCray added a sac fly to close the gap to 7-5. Moore pitched the bottom of the sixth, struck out 2 and kept the devils off the board.
South Hills held off a late South Oakland rally, and the Ducks left the tying run on second base in the top of the seventh.
After two tough losses and what feels like a month off, the Ducks (5-4) take on the Eagles (5-5) at Spring Hill tonight. The Ducks held on for a 10-7 win in the teams’ previous meeting.
South Side has the second best run differential in the league, but is only at .500. They score a lot of runs.
The standings are really tight right now. The Wolfpack are in first place at 6-3 and the next six teams are separated by 2 games. Cranberry is having a rough start at 1-6-1, but are only three back in the loss column.
This is a big game tonight as South Oakland looks to gain separation from the pack and stay in the hunt for a first round bye in the playoffs.
Bad News for the Eagles
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 