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.
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.
South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (2-0, 3-4-3)
at
Clinton Cherokee (0-0, 5-2)
1pm and 3:30pm
Middle of Nowhere (seriously, according to this yahoo maps link, we’re playing in a parallel dimension)
In this alternate universe, all teams want pictures like this taken of their summer league teams.
They look like they mean business – and check out the sick piping!
This is probably just some art students’ school project, but whatever.
If Ken Cool’s brother had stuck around we might have Ducks pics like this: I’d want a silhouette of Guth holding up that cigar on top of the Cool’s picnic table right before he blacked out and fell on the driveway after we won the championship, imposed in front of Dan Marino field in Oakland with a drug deal taking place in the background and some little kids playing with a broken 40 bottle.
Sadly, me and Fago’s inability to provide our team with posters of ourselves led to the loss of some quality players.
Our pitching situation is gonna be touch and go, but we should have most of our lineup.
Paul Emig (1-o-1) earned his first win as a Duck since 2007, allowing 2 runs over 4 innings, to help South Oakland (1-0, 2-4-2) open divisional play with a 7 – 3 win over Cranberry (0-1, 2-5).
Trailing 2-0 in the top of the fifth, Fetter led off the inning with a double, followed by four singles by Roberts, Emig, Ken Cool, and Gwin to put South Oakland up 3-2. With two out in the inning, Swartwout doubled in Ken Cool to give the Ducks a 4-2 lead.
In the Sixth Fetter singled to lead off the inning, and advanced to third on a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice (not sure in which order, the book is a mess). Fetter would score on an overthrow back to the pitcher.
In the seventh, Ken Cool and Gwin hit back to back singles to start the inning, Ken Cool scored on Swartwout’s second double of the game, Gwin scored on an rbi groundout by Houseman.
In the bottom of the 6th, TJ Morgan and Houseman teamed up to throw a guy out at third attempting to stretch a double into a triple.
Fetter may have picked up a three-inning save, allowing 1 unearned run in relief. Not sure if that’s possible.
We really needed this one.
South Oakland will face the Black Sox wed night, 9pm at SpringView Field.
After an opening day shutout of the South Side Eagles, the Shaler Rebels have dropped two straight to fall to 1-2 on the season, good for fifth place in the A division, but only 1.5 games behind the first place Titans, who I think are also from the Shaler area.
We’re still awaiting word on who or what the Rebels are rebelling from.
Expect a bloodbath when Shaler takes on the Senators Wednesday night.
We still remember the help the Eagles gave us early last year, but South Oakland’s pick to win the A division is the Warriors depending on Craig Boley’s status.
James Tessyier allowed two base runners on walks, South Oakland hit three inside the park home runs (Casale, Gwin, Cinefra) in the span of four batters in the bottom of the third inning to put the game out of reach.
Nick Berdine’s diving catch in the top of the first saved Tessyier’s no-hit bid.
Anthony Defilippo went 4 for 4 with a double.
I don’t have the book in front of me everyone hit well.
Fago hit a double, Berdine hit a single to the wall in left and Ken Cool’s knowledge of the LaRoche College field gave South Oakland the edge they needed to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
Full recap to follow.
South Oakland plays the Maulers at 3pm tomorrow at LaRoche College Field
South Oakland (11-5, 4-1) sits in first place in the Wales Conference.
The Ducks seventh straight win prevented Brookline (9-5, 4-2) from effectively clinching the division, setting up a show down for the division for the division title with the Black Sox: time and place tbd.
James Tessyier (4-0) pitched a complete game shutout.
Tim Lipp and Jesse Smith had rbi for South Oakland.
Ken Cool, once again, dominated.
Recap forthcoming.
boobs.
Game three between the Ducks and Black Sox remains unscheduled.
Rob “Baconator” Baumgartel pitched five scoreless innings, Ken Cool had two blistering hits and the South Oakland Ducks made short work of a second straight A opponent, beating the Knights 7-2 on Monday.
The game we’ve all been waiting for is on the horizon. Our team was assembled with the goal of overtaking the Sox and winning the various titles at stake with the league’s current format.
Monday’s game is a playoff game.
Ducks/Knights recap:
After Baconator retired the side in order in the first, The Keymaster had some trouble throwing to second early in the game. The ducks sent nine batters to the plate in the first inning, and scored five runs in the opening frame.
Cinefra started the five inning first with a single, then he stole two bases, during Duffy’s at bat, and Rob Cool singled him home.
DeFilippo loves running for Fago and leads the nation in steals. He also gave us this quote during one of the last two blowout wins:
“I wish we could just play the Black Sox every game.”
The Ducks stole seven bases in the first inning.
Rob Cool took home on a past ball or something.
Lipp drove in two, Ken Cool had an RBI.
Baumgartel worked out of a jam in the second, striking out three batters in the inning.
5-0 Ducks after two
In the third, Rob Cool doubled, Fago drove him in.
6-0 after three
If there is a sequence I’d like to define my career as a Duck, it would be one in which I am hit by a pitch, then break up a double play with a boarderline slide, allowing a run to score later in the inning.
That happened in the fourth when I was beaned in the head to load the bases with no outs.
Cinefra drove in a run with a sac fly.
7-0 Ducks after four.
Wojton would throw his helmet after he was caught stealing.
Nothin’ to #u&% with
In the top of the fifth there was a shot towards the gap between first and second; Berdine was there:
Hands.
The Knights scored two unearned in the sixth.
Fago struckout the side in the top of the seventh.
7-2 Ducks. Game.
Our season is on the line Monday. We have to win our last two games vs. the Black Sox to have a chance at the Wales Division and the AA title.
To win the AA title we have to finish first in the Wales, then beat whomever finishes first in the Campbell in a best of three series.
The division winners each receive a bye and the # 1 and 2 seeding respectively in the league wide tourney at the end of the season.
The Ducks have been bi-polar this season: losing streaks of 3 and 2 preclude two 4-game win streaks.
Manic Depression.
There have been two waves of new player arrivals this summer. The first to start the season and the second after the Warriors game. In both instances it took some time for the flock to come together, for that oft-spoke-of, intangible, all-important “Chemistry” to manifest, to become something palpable and real we could wrap our wings around.
We’re beating on teams now, two consecutive ten-run rule victories over division opponents.
Last night the hitting was contagious, the defense was steady and Mark [Captain “Last thoughts on Woody” America] Guthrie turned in another solid outing to raise his record to 2-2, and lower his era to 1.37.
TC Jones recorded an RBI single in the 4th and is batting 1.000 against Adam Smith for his career, while striking him out once in the first Ducks/Eagles’ game this season.
The grudge match, which probably means more to me than either of those two, makes for solid blog post material.
Essentially, Smith left the Ducks because he disagreed with TC’s managerial style.
Smith has not defeated the Ducks since leaving the team, the Eagles are 4-7, while the Ducks are 8-5 and in first place.
The Ducks have outscored the Eagles 24-5 over two games.
TC Jones has the 3rd highest winning percentage over two years of any Pittsburgh NABA manager.: 14-12-2, and then 16-8 for a 30-20-2 record.
The coach with the highest winning percentage over two consecutive seasons is also a Duck.
No idea who #2 is, and I’m not going to look it up.
My all-time record as coach is not good, but it’s improving.
The Ducks play the Titans on Sunday at 5:30 at Ohio River Blvd. Field, the Knights at 9pm next Monday night, then, after a week off, Ducks vs. B-Sox at the Pond.
Bring on Kenny Powers and the Fightin’ Florians.
6/28 9pm at Spring View.
That’s the game we have to have.
Without further hyperbole, the recap:
Guthrie allowed the only Eagles hit of the game with two outs in the first. Then, after an error, he K’d Adam Smith to end the inning.
South Oakland sent ten batters to the plate in the first:
Five walks surrounded DeFilippo’s rbi single, Nick Homa followed Chris Wojton’s rbi base-on-balls with a two run single.
5-0 Ducks after 1.
Guthrie puts the Eagles down in order in the second, and the Ducks sent nine batters to the plate in the second.
Mike Duffy is batting .437; he led the inning off with a single, stole second and scored on DeFilippo’s second hit of the game.
Nick Berdine followed Flip’s single with an RBI triple to right, and scored on Lipp’s single to center.
Adam Smith entered the game as a relief pitcher at some point.
8-0 Ducks after 2.
Guthrie faced three batters in the 3rd.
Gwin finally got a hit, singling to lead off the bottom of the 3rd, the first of two on the night for the arthritic catcher.
Duffy followed with a single, Rob Cool did not get a hit, then Casale hit one up the middle which was thrown away by Smith, loading the bases for Defilippo who drove in another run with his third hit on the game.
Then TC “Boyle” Jones stepped to the plate with Casale on third and Drop City’ed a 1-2 pitch into left for the Ducks’ 11th run.
11-0 Ducks after 3.
The Eagles were Baconated in the top of the 4th.
The Ducks added 3 more runs in the bottom half: “Slick” Rick Whalen and Murphy walked to open the inning, Gwin singled to right, and Whalen scored on a throwing error, that I probably credited as an RBI for myself because I have no respect for the sanctity of pgh naba baseball.
Duffy singled in Murphy.
Guthrie walked to load the bases. Flip drove in Gwin with a fielder’s choice.
Nothin’ to #u&% with
11-0 Ducks after 3.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 