Ducks

Game Day 2: Ducks vs Lions

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs. 

North American Lions

8pm

Springview Field

South Oakland opens at home tonight against the North American Lions. After a 9-4 win over the Wolfpack, the Ducks look to start a winning streak in what will probably be wet conditions.

Follow Michael Brandt @Duckpond2014 for in-game updates while you watch the Pens.

The Lions finished 14-9 last year. I have no idea what to expect, but I love how they claim a whole continent. It’s North America’s first game so we’ll probably face their ace.

Dr. Jones will get some innings on the mound tonight.

about-indiana-jones-4

Bad News for the Lions

 

Ducks Win. 9-4

2014 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland won it’s first game of the season defeating the West View Wolfpack 9-5.

Tony Casale went 4-for-4. Brandon Culp went 3-for-4 with a double and four RBI. Matt Swetz hit a sweet double over some kid’s head. Jason Fetter pitched four innings allowing 1 earned run. Brian Strom allowed 1 run over three strong relief innings. Ducks pitchers combined to strike out nine wolfpacks, nine wolves? nine wolfpack? Whatever. I think West View only had four hits, depending how loose their book is.

We made fewer mistakes than they did, and looked pretty good all things considered. We’re going to score a lot of runs this season.

West View is a basically the old Matadors/Sharks. I don’t know how they scammed their way into that 8:30 John Herb time slot.

 

The game ended on a dropped third strike with the bases loaded. After the strike out,  the Ducks catcher, Anthony Ciccone, picked up the ball and stepped on the plate, to end the game, but  the Wolfpack batter ran to first for some reason and tried to run over our first baseman. Nice.

South Oakland plays next on Wednesday, 8pm at Springview Field.

Mike Brandt is going to live tweet the first few inning of the game before he leaves for work. I’m expecting great things. Also, we’ll have our uniforms.

Quack.

 

 

 

 

Quack Quack. Two Ducks Teams in 2014?

2014 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball, who names their team the Rebels?

Fuck this winter.

It looks like TJ Morgan is running the AA Ducks, and I’m running the single A Ducks. I’m still trying to find a loophole to allow me to play on both teams, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen.

The split should’ve happened in 2010, but no one on that team was going to step down and play in a lower division. Instead, a bunch of guys quit rather than take reduced roles. And, really, who wants a reduced role in a fucking summer league? No one. I strained some friendships over that mess, and I probably deserve it. Maybe I shouldn’t give as much of a shit four years later, but I’m obsessed with narrative–the story in this mess, and without conflict there’s no story. So I think about it.

This weather is making me sound depressed. Here’s a photoshop to lighten things up. Some of my best work!

2007WorldChamps-Rebels_photo_poop_2 copy

The A Ducks are shaping up pretty well. We have a bunch of guys from the Militia, and a few ghosts of South Oakland past returning. I think it’ll be fun. We will be competitive. If the pitching holds up, we should contend with the other sandbagging teams for a title. I think those are realistic expectations.

Morgan’s Ducks, will be nasty this year, too, if the pitching holds up. The Fightin’ Ducks, is what it looks like since everyone still has Ducks jerseys. Morgan does things the right way, and helped the franchise through a rough patch last season that saw a near folding of the team, and a collapse down the stretch and a ton of games in the middle of nowhere. It sucks to run a team without a pitching staff, and guys who won’t commit.

Teams that left in the offseason: The Militia. Elliot. Maybe one other one. This will be the Ducks 12th season.

If it wasn’t for Elliot, we could conceivably have won two or three titles in the last four years. We’d have won in ’11 maybe ’12. What would have been awesome, is if we played the Cherokee in the finals or semis two years ago. But this is some space time continuum shit. Whatever. Elliot made the league better. Not upset I don’t have to face Barnes again. They beat us 20-3 one game, the year where only divisional games counted towards our record so we punted that one and got slaughtered.

The Militia broke up, the team that was the Orioles, Knights, Gray Bats, and Rebels who left the Black Sox who were the Stampeders.

militia

With Monroeville disbanded, who will defend the league?

Not Captain America.

Guthrie retired. The last holdover from the TC Jones era, Guth beat the Black Sox to win our most recent championship. Guth went 6 1/3 innings on the mound in a 5-3 win in the clinching game then blacked out and split his chin open that night celebrating. Blood and cheap whiskey everywhere. That’s always how it ends.

Goodnight Captain.

Quack.

Gamday 21: Ducks at Elliot

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

Ducks

at

Elliot

6pm

Herschel Park

Screen Shot 2013-07-13 at 12.35.06 PM

Pittsburgh Standings as of  Sunday afternoon

We play 3 games in two days starting tonight against 2-time defending champion Elliot in Elliot.

We will have a forfeit win for one of our west end games, and play the other tomorrow night in a game that could be huge.

The Pirates have clinched a spot.

Carrick is technically still alive, but barely. (note: Carrick comes up as carsick in spell check)

Cranberry is falling fast.

The Militia went on a nice run as of late, but lost a tough one this morning.

The Black Sox play Carrick tonight, and still have to reschedule a game against the Bulldogs, before they play us tomorrow.

If we win-out we’re in.

Despite our respective records, we played Elliot close early this season, losing 9-7 and leaving a ton of guys on base.

Patten’s on the hill tonight.

Bad News for Elliot

Gameday 20: Ducks at Pour House

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks (7-12)

at

Pour House Pirates (7-10)

9:30AM

Hershel Park

The last time we played the Pirates we were pulling guys off the street to play, and we still put up 10 runs before an epic collapse in the top of the seventh in which Pour House scored nine unanswered and went on to beat us 14-10.

It would be nice if West End got nine together on Friday to at least force Pour House to use up some pitching. They play three games in four days and are one game ahead of us in the standings. This weekend is huge for playoff implications as we get down to the wire. We have almost all our starters available Saturday morning, so we don’t have any excuses if we can’t hold them under 14 runs.

Jesse Ferko is playing third.

Bad News for the Pirates

Eight Men Out: South Oakland pulls into final playoff spot with 5 games remaining

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland (7-12) played with 8 players for five innings and still beat Carrick 4-3 at Beedle Park in Western Maryland on June 23rd.

Fago has won like 5 straight decisions on the mound, and leads the team in wins and saves.

South Oakland lost 6-0 to the Cleveland Indians on Sunday in a rain-shortened affair.

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[Standings as of Monday, July 1st]

The Black Sox have picked it up, going from 10th to 7th over the last couple weeks.

Everyone else is falling back to the pack.

The Ducks have two games to reschedule vs. West End, Pour House this Saturday, then finish with Elliot and Brookline on the season’s final weekend.

After looking at the schedules of the rest of the teams outside the top 4, basically, we control our own destiny since the other 5-10 teams will beat up on each other.

I said at one point we needed ten wins to make it in, and i think that should still do it.

After a 1-9 start we could conceivably finish as high as fifth, but we have to keep winning. Pending rescheduled games, South Oakland plays Brookline on the last day of the regular season.

quack

Ducks Win

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA

South Oakland jumped out to an 8-0 lead after three innings, and held off a late Brookline rally to win 9-5.

James Fago pitched a complete game for the much-needed victory, and added an RBI single.

Ducks right fielder Zach Skowvron literally knocked out the Sox starting pitcher with a line drive to the groin area that went for a bases loaded, rbi single in the third.

I hope that guy isn’t pissing blood. it looked like it really hurt.

The Ducks did a good job of stranding Black Sox runners, and getting timely hits.

For the Ducks, Baumgartel hit a triple, Anthony Ciccone was 2-for-3 with two doubles, Stahl 2-for-4 with a double, Gwin was 2-for-4 with a double and 3 rbi, Skowvron was 2-for-3 with a walk. 8 South Oakland starters recorded a hit, and all nine reached base safely at least once.

The above might not be 100% accurate, I don’t have the book, but we hit well.

For the Sox, Kenny Powers and Goldie hit triples.

Florian hustled.

A win against the Black Sox, in Brookline, is always big.

South Oakland has scored 26 runs in its last 3 games and looks to keep the momentum going throughout the weekend.

South Oakland next plays a double header at Cranberry, Saturday, 1pm.

Quack.

Look at all those Ducks!

2013 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland looks to turn its season around with a stretch of four games in four days starting this Thursday night in Brookline.

Upcoming Schedule:

Thurs 9pm vs. Black Sox at Brookline
Sat 1pm Doubleheader at Cranberry
Sun 12:30pm vs. Militia at Woodland Hills HS

quack

Ducks Win: Ducks 7, Cranberry 6

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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.