South Oakland sits at 2-2 after defeating pre-season favorite Keystone Oaks 13-5 in a rain-shortened game last Tuesday night at John Herb Field. Brandon Blackstone (W, 1-0) pitched 4.2 innings for the win. Cody Quinn recorded the final out in the top of the fifth.
TJ Morgan, Tom Pulice, Anthony DeFillipo, and Ryan Myers all had multiple hits for the Ducks.
The game was rained out after five full innings, and started late after a scheduling miscue with the umpires. Keystone Oaks dropped to 3-2 with the loss.
The Ducks next game is Tuesday night at John Herb Field.
South Oakland rallied from a 5-1 deficit to beat the South Side Eagles, 11-5 in Ross Tuesday night. The game was close until the bottom of the sixth inning when Cody Quinn iced the game with a bases laded 2-run single. Brandon Blackstone (W, 4-2) scattered 9 hits over 5 innings and struck out 5. Ryan Myers recorded a two-inning save (1). The Ducks record improved to 10-7-1 with the win; the Eagles dropped to 12-7-1.
The Ducks are now 5-0 at John Herb Field since acquiring the permit in June, and are a game back of the Eagles for the fourth seed which would keep the team out of the play-in round.
Catching up
Butler’s split from Cranberry turned the Juice into an at-times dominant team, and arguably led to a shift in personnel philosophy from Cranberry’s manager as they have loaded up with high-pedigree pitching, and have the arms to make a deep run. Did Butler’s defection lead to one of the nicest guys in the league saying fuck it and adding guys who should probably be in AAA? That is up for debate, but it would be a fun storyline if I had the bandwidth to dig into it.
We need to start voting teams up or AA is going to get top heavy.
The Ducks split the 3 game series with Butler, going 1-1-1. That team is a bad matchup for us.
KO has a better record, but I think the title is Cranberry’s to lose.
D2 with a solid choice of 80s Phillies-inspired, new jerseys.
Kenny Rayl for MVP and Billy Welsh for POY. Both are having standout seasons.
There was a brawl in the Lions/Marlins game. I only know third-hand what went down, but its a joke, and a black mark for the league. When the umps don’t control games, and managers don’t control their players, it was bound to happen eventually. This is how we lose permits.
I’m for getting rid of the handshake line or having the umpires stay to watch the handshake line like they do in NBHL (deck hockey) games. The umps left immediately after the Marlins game, so there was no one there to objectively report what happened. League officials are in a holding pattern trying to gather information before suspensions are leveed.
This has been a tough summer for me. After a long bout with dementia, my dad died on May 17th. I’ve been pretty fucked since then. I’m grateful for my teammates for their support and for the league for giving me a reason to get me out of the house. But it’s been frustrating. At times, the game that is supposed to be a release has added stress as I play poorly, and then it starts to compound as I press. Then I feel bad for even caring so much about adult baseball when my dad just died, and it’s a really fucked headspace a lot of the time. It’s hard. I don’t feel washed, and I hope I’m not physically unable to contribute anymore, but I have to at least entertain that is a possibility. I’ll play indefinitely, but I don’t want to be a mascot.
So that’s basically why the blog has been quiet, and I’ve been busy with other shit. I’ll try to keep up better for my five loyal readers. No promises though.
My dad was solid. He was like me but not an asshole. I miss him.
Thanks, Tom, for writing a solid preseason blog. We should be good this year. How good? I don’t know. Personally, I’m always worried I will suddenly just not be able to hit anymore, but I feel great. I’ve been a Duck for almost half my life, and I’m looking forward to riding the coattail of my younger, more accomplished teammates to one more title. Hopefully that happens this year. We should have the pitching. If we get solid middle infield play this year, we will be tough to beat. I’m optimistic.
The point isn’t just winning a title, it’s winning a title with this core. It’s about winning with these guys who have been here for years while we can still contribute. Every off season, we try to figure out how to improve the roster without forcing guys out who can still play. It’s a tough balance, and the toughest part of being a manager.
We’re having a golf outing on 4/20. It will be great. We will raise money to help out our team and the youth league that is also getting kicked off our field after this season.
I’m golfing with my uncle and two Ducks legends. It’s bittersweet. Like most of us, my dad taught me to golf. My dad has been sick for the last year or so. I’m entering that purgatorial stage of life that involves caring for my kid and my parents. It’s kind of surreal and makes me question my mortality. Watching my dad wither away, I am determined to play baseball as much as I can, as well as I can, with as much reckless abandon as possible, until I can’t. I only have so many good years left. I will spend those summers running around in the outfield at Springview and then wherever our new home turns out to be.
The proposed renovations on Springview Field are long overdue, and are also being completely botched. The city wants to move the fences in to little league depth, which makes no sense as there are no little league teams that play there. This will also force out the pony league teams to another field, and futher congest the permit situation which is already bad.
There will be pickle ball courts put in where the basketball courts are – a gentrification move that would make the Oilers blush. They supposedly want to put a walking path around the outfield. Idk. It’s dumb, and not in the best interest of the kids, and it also fucks our team.
We’ve put more work into that field than the city ever has, and we’re probably going to have to play elsewhere after this season. But we will look good doing it. New uniforms, which are like our 2008-2010 ones but nicer, will be in before the season starts.
Around the League!
I don’t really know what personnel moves have been happening elsewhere in AA, so this, as always, is based mostly on vibes.
The Bandidos promise not to be super good again, they swear. No way should they have been voted up. In surprising twist, Greg Friend turned down a multi-year offer from the Ducks to run Bakery Square who have a garbage time slot. I can’t think of a worse place to be at 9:30 am than under the fucking glare of that stupid building, surrounded by Seattle transplants and people going to watch that big outdoor TV and day drink in Shady Side.
Cranberry will win games because of Jon Hart, and because no one wants to drive to Cranberry. They will lose in the playoffs in crushing fashion.
KO is gonna be a tough out. Good mix of young and fast kids with grizzled vets. This is also our recipe. They have the second worst time slot, but a nicer field than Bakery Square.
D2: I predict a 11-13 regular season and a deep playoff run when they shorten the bench. It helps to get this team when they’re batting 14 guys in May. I think they have new management now, so who knows.
The Devils could not agree to terms with former Duck Randy Patton. They must have some pitching if they’re turning away a guy who is at worst a solid innings eater, and a top of the rotation starter on most teams. If the Devils don’t fight each other, they will probably win games.
Butler is maybe folding. They will likely just ask their parents for money and get their fees in at the last minute. I hope they fold. I hate driving to Cranberry.
The Eagles are trying to figure out a way to cheat and bring in college kids as I write this. Their success this year will depend on how well they recruit and skirt league bylaws.
Sheraden/Warriors/Lions will probably give us a couple bad losses that fuck up our playoff seeding. There’s some bad blood between all three of these teams from back in the Single A days. The renewed Sheraden vs. Ducks rivalry should be fun.
Good luck to everyone. Thanks for another summer in the sun.
The South Oakland Ducks defeated the Sheraden Jays 4-3 to advance to the NABA Double A Championship Series, Sunday evening in Spring Hill. It was the Ducks third straight road win at Springview Field in three days.
Friday
TJ Morgan and Alex Swauger led the Ducks offense with three hits apiece, pacing the team to a 9-6 victory over the Bandidos. Tom Pulice had 3 RBI and Anthony DeFilippo hit a solo home run. Casen Wolinsky (W, 2-0) pitched five strong innings, and Luke Hudic recorded the two-inning save (1).
Sunday
In the losers bracket semi-final, Zach Gift pitched a complete game (W, 1-0), and the Ducks scored 5 runs in the first inning to chase D2’s starter. Tom Pulice hit a solo home run in the fifth to put the game out of reach. Final score: Ducks 6, D2 2
In the losers bracket final, the Ducks came back from an early 2-0 deficit behind a strong start from Randy Patton and another save from Hudic (2). Patton (W, 1-1) allowed one earned run through six, but the Jays capitalized on two, first-inning Ducks errors. South Oakland scored one in the third, two in the fourth and one in the sixth. The Jays added a run in the bottom of the sixth on a fielder’s choice.
With the Ducks leading 4-3 in the seventh, Hudic picked off a runner for the first out after a questionable catcher’s interference call, struck out the Jays’ leadoff hitter, walked a batter, then struck out MVP candidate Luke Gapinski to end the game.
The Ducks will face the South Side Eagles in a best-of-three series for the title.
Baseball!
The Ducks advanced to the finals for the fourth time in team history. We beat the Piranhas in 2003 and the Black Sox in 2010. We lost to Elliot in 2011.
We are 5-1 in the playoffs with five of six games as the visiting team. Our one home game was at Herschel Park, and we played three consecutive road games at Springview, our home field.
We beat D2 twice by a combined score of 16-4. D2 beat us 10-0 when we last played them in the regular season.
Before this year, we had never played the Bandidos or Cranberry in the playoffs. We played them both this post-season: a 7-0 loss to Jon Hart at Cranberry, and a 9-6 win over the Bandidos on Friday.
After hitting zero home runs in the regular season, we have hit three in six playoff games (Rayl, Defilippo, Pulice).
Entering the tournament as the no. 7 seed, we beat the 8, 6 (twice), 5, and 2 seeds to reach the finals against the no. 1 seed South Side Eagles.
The Eagles earned a double bye in the playoffs, and beat the Bandidos and Sheraden in the winners bracket to advance to the Championship Series.
Today’s win got us back to .500 on the season (15-15).
Date and time of Game 1 of the Championship Series is tbd.
Ducks End Regular Season on High Note. Face Devils in First Round
Back in 2003 the Piranhas had this guy Gustavo Lopez (behind Boley, holding bat), and used to just kill us. He hit like seven home runs in that first year, and hit well over .500. We played out in Ambridge on a tiny field past Economy Park on the other side of rt. 65 across from Red Cap Dry Cleaners. During the regular season, Lopez hit towering home runs into the little league field beyond ours. We would walk him late in the game even if it put the tying run on base. He was cocky, and proved to be one of the leagues first great villains. He’s probably a good guy. I don’t really know him.
In 2003, we had a so-so regular season. We were mostly all happy to still be baseball again. The morning time slot 45 minutes away from Oakland did us no favors. Almost all of us were hungover, still, drunk or smoking weed to calm our nerves on the long ride to the games. We finished fourth out of five teams, and made a run in the post season to our first championship over the Piranhas.
Lopez was a non-factor in the championship. Playing at John Herb the rainbow arced home runs he hit at Ambridge turned to fly outs. When we made the move to wood bats, he hit .176. I have no idea what he’s doing now.
South Oakland clinched the four seed behind a solid spot start from Ben Doak (W, 1-0), and clutch hitting from Mark Lombardi Wednesday night in Spring Hill. With the win, South Oakland took the season series from the feisty Piranhas who upset them earlier in the year. The Ducks will be the home team tonight at Moore Park in an elimination game against the Devils.
Playoff Gameday 1: Ducks vs Devils
South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (13-11)
vs
South Hills Devils (13-11)
8:30 pm
Moore Park
Both South Hills and South Oakland started slow this year, lost a dominant pitcher, and still put together winning seasons. The Ducks and Devils both sit at 13-11. The Ducks own the tie breaker thanks to winning a tough season series in what many believe has become the premier rivalry of AA Pittsburgh NABA baseball. There’s not much to say here that would do this one justice. It’s been a great season, and it’s a shame one of these two teams has to go home early. Hopefully the Moore Park magic of seasons past is on our side.
South Oakland split a weekend set with the Bandidos, winning Friday’s game 5-2, and dropping Saturdays game 2-1. On the season, the Bandidos won the net runs by 1, and took two of three from the Ducks. They also won the negotiating rights of disgruntled, pitcher/outfielder Greg Friend who is set to become a restricted free agent after the season.
“Maybe after next year,” a source in the Ducks front office said. “We wish him the best.”
“Is this real?” Friend asked. “I wish I’d known about this before the game.”
Bandidos management was not available for comment.
Friend made a great catch in Friday’s game and converted the save on Sunday.
South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (12-10)
vs
Pittsburgh D2 (7-12-1)
9pm
Springview Field
Over the weekend, the Ducks clinched a non-losing record with their twelfth win. After a rough start, the team has rounded into form winning 9 of 12 down the stretch.
A win tonight would clinch the fourth seed and ensure a home game in the first round of the playoffs. We’d also stay mathematically alive for the three seed, depending on the outcome of the Cranberry (11-11-1) and South Side (13-9) game. A Ducks loss tonight keeps the six seed in play.
We want to stay hot heading into the meat grinder of an opening round next weekend and what looks to be an inevitable rematch with the new look South Hills Devils.
D2 has been a tough matchup for us historically. This one could go either way as both teams empty their bullpens, but we have a slight edge playing at home. Our record at the Duck Pond has been great this year.
Brandon Blackstone (W, 6-1) scattered 5 hits and walked 2 over six innings to lead the Ducks to their eleventh win of the season. South Oakland jumped ahead thanks to a five-run second inning. TJ Morgan drove in three runs with a single off the wall. Ben Doak hit what looked like a home run into the overhanging branches in right, but settled for a double. Mark Lombardi had two hits and two RBI for South Oakland. Stef Blackstone faced 4 batters in the seventh for the save (2).
The win is the Ducks first over Cranberry since 2018, snapping an eight (?) game losing streak that included multiple extra inning games and some heart breaking loses. Let this be the start of a new streak.
South Oakland has matched its win total (11) from last season with four games to play:
Two vs the Bandidos are on the schedule with Sunday’s start time up in the air and Friday’s start time moved up 8pm.
The D2 game is tentatively scheduled for Monday night in Manchester but is subject to change pending a field upgrade.
The Piranhas have not yet confirmed a time and place for our makeup game with them.
We can finish as high as third and as low as sixth.
The Ducks play next on Friday, 8pm at Mellon Park vs the Bandidos.
South Oakland (10-9) lost 3-1 to the Grizzlies (19-3) last night in Spring Hill. Bauerstown hit a solo home run in the top of the first, and never trailed. They scored on off a walk and another off a double. TJ Morgan had the lone RBI for South Oakland. The Grizzlies pitcher kept the Ducks off balance all night. Both teams worked out of jams. Walks were the difference in the game.
The Ducks host Cranberry tonight at Springview Field, 9pm. These two teams have been on different trajectories since their last game. Cranberry is 3-7 in their last 10, while the Ducks are 7-3. However, South Oakland hasn’t beaten Cranberry since 2018. The games are always maddeningly close, but the Ducks seem to come up short. Tonight we have Brandon Blackstone going, and Springview is in the best shape of its life. Tonight is a great night to break a long losing street.
Ducks Starting pitcher Randy Patton (W, 3-1) threw four strong innings, and Tom Pulice drove in three runs to lead South Oakland to the win yesterday in Spring Hill.
The game was close until the bottom of the fourth. The Grizzlies led 4-2 before the Ducks sent ten players to the plate without recording an out. South Oakland scored nine in the fourth behind a three-run double by Tom Pulice. They added two in the fifth and one in the sixth. Brandon Blackstone pitched two scoreless innings in relief.
The Grizzlies clinched first place with a 13-0 win over the Eagles in the first half of the split double header yesterday. They ran out of gas in this one, and saved arms for Tuesday.
We were playing without most of our starting infield, and four starters. Tuesday’s game should be a good one against a rested Grizzlies squad with hopefully most of our starters. We need to take wins any way we can get them down the stretch, and we played well in this one.
Stats n’at
Ben Sorosky: 3-for-4, BB, 2 RBI
Hayden Hoffman: 2-for-4, 2 RBI
Matt Mullen: 3-for-4, RBI
South Oakland improves to 10-8 with the win.
The Ducks next game is Tuesday, 8pm at Springview Field vs Bauerstown.
South Oakland opens up a two game series with Bauerstown today in a rare late afternoon game in Spring Hill. The Grizzlies are playing a split doubleheader today. they play the Eagles at 12pm at Herschel Park before barnstorming their way across two rivers to play the Ducks on the North Side. I give them a lot of credit for making the effort to get the game in.
Around the League
Standings as of 7/10
Bauerstown can clinch first place with a win or a Bandidos loss.
Cranberry has a double header against Bakery Square today.
The Devils have the easiest remaining schedule with four against the bottom two teams in the division.
The Eagles finish with Bauerstown, Cranberry and two against D2.
We have a brutal schedule down the stretch. Starting on Tuesday, we have five games in six days (we will play the Piranhas on Thursday the 15th) with the D2 game still to reschedule. If D2 gets scheduled for Monday the 19th, that would be six games in seven days.
Individually, each game is winnable. Winning four of seven will keep us in the top half of the standings.
The last time we played Bauerstown, the Grizzlies won on a walk-off sacrifice fly. I like our chances in a close game at home.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 