The 2013 south oakland ducks roster is nearly set. Everything hinges on a couple pitchers.
TJ Morgan has been named manager, and will make all the in-game decisions. Mark Guthrie is in charge of finances. Garrett Moore is in charge of the bases and helmets.
I will play left field.
we’ll pull it together and be competitive again.
Ken Cool’s jersey will be retired when the ducks play the indians.
no idea how to get rid of this ad.
quack
South Oakland Ducks
at
Elliot
6pm
Herschel Park
***
We’re 1-7 all time against Elliot. The only win coming in game 2 of last year’s finals before we lost the series in three games.
As far as I’m concerned we’re playing with house money at this point.
Given the injuries we’ve suffered this season and all the unnecessary drama that has gone down, we can go out and play like we have nothing to lose. No one expects us to get out of this round. A win this evening will put us in great position.
Bad News for Elliot.
Anthony DeFilippo drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh and James Fago pitched a complete game for the victory. scattering 4 hits and one walk to lead South Oakland to the victory over the Monroeville Militia Sunday night.
The Militia led 1-0 when Dan Stell scored on an RBI triple by Lombardi in the top of the fourth.
The Ducks answered in the bottom half of the inning when Jesse Ferko reached after a strikeout and a dropped third strike, stole second, advanced to third on a past ball, and then stole home.
it was technically a past ball, but that backstop is six inches behind the plate. Still a great hustle play.
The Ducks pushed the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth: Bob Swartwout hustled out a ground ball to deep short and reached on an error by the first baseman, Fago singled, and after both runners advanced on a past ball, TJ Morgan delivered a 2-run single.
The Militia tied the game at 3 in the top of the seventh on a two-run, two out double by Banner.
In the bottom of the seventh Gwin led off with a bunt single, advanced to second on a past ball, and scored the winning run on DeFilippo’s single to center.
The Militia’s starting pitcher Joe Stupka left South Oakland earlier in the season due to scheduling conflicts, and struck out 15 Ducks in the loss.
What a game.
This recap in no way does justice to how tense and well played the game was.
South Oakland will play Elliot in a best of three series in the league semifinals starting this weekend.
Quack.
Fago
South Oakland opens the 2012 postseason against the Monroeville Militia Sunday July 22nd, 8:30pm at Moore Park.
The All-Star starters are up on the league home page.
Interesting how last-place Cranberry has 4 starters compared to the Ducks and Black Sox who have one apiece.
From our team I nominated Fago, Ken Cool, Morgan and Swartwout. Who will represent us at the all-star game in August if they choose.
Cases could be made for Houseman and me based on the numbers and Houseman being sick at fielding. But i’m not about to vote for myself, certainly not to start over whatever low-A prospect Clinton has in left field, and for some reason I thought Elliot was in our division and Wes White was a more deserving starter at SS. Sorry, House, for not knowing what teams are in our division.
I think we need a return to the mid-season all-star game next year so people actually show up. That was a lot of fun a couple years back, despite coach Kenny Powers not getting me an at-bat.
Apparently the Rebels and Warriors game last week ended in a fight with police called.
I forget the details. Hopefully they meet in the A championship and it’s really intense.
***
The Ducks Elliot game will not be rescheduled. We tried, but the weather and field availability worked against us. I would’ve liked to get some at bats before sunday.
Anyway…
After a brutal off-season and losing pitchers upon pitchers for a variety of reasons, the Ducks finished the regular season 11-10-2 and 8-4 in the division.
Good for fourth overall and second in the Monongahela.
We will be the home team on Sunday.
If I had known the 2-seeds were going to switch brackets, it would have been a lot tougher to release Stupka to the Militia. Ethically I made the right decision.
If both teams have everyone show up on Sunday night, it’s going to be a great game.
More tomorrow.
quack.
Playing without team MVP, and number one starting pitcher James Fago (and three other regulars) South Oakland dropped its most important game of the season 13-11 to the Clinton Cherokee Wednesday night. We fought hard and came up just short. Clinton led 4-0, after one, 7-1 after two and we brought it to i think 9-8 in the third. Then they scored three in the fourth, and one in the fifth before we put up three in the bottom of the sixth. I could go get the book out of my car to make sure, but I won’t.
I’m not one for moral victories. We had a chance to win the division and we didn’t. Maybe we still allow 13 runs if we have a couple guys in on defense, but we only made a few errors, a pop-up and two grounders. Everyone who showed up played hard. Guthrie and Strom played especially well, and maybe those two don’t get in if everyone’s there, so who knows. Clinton ran on us all day, if we have another infielder we can maybe make defensive moves to address that. It’s frustrating.
They also hit like fifteen home runs.
We split the season series with Clinton and aside from our first matchup we’ve played them tough every time. I don’t think they expected that.
One positive I take from the loss is that we battled, and we were patient at the plate against that kid who threw at least 120mph and let him walk us.
We had the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth.
The game was called due to time limit. I definitely managed the pitching as if we were playing seven, and that’s my fault for not realizing we were going to come up against the time limit, which I should have figured out when it was 9-8 in the third.
We’ve got to retire the Duck Pond next year. That field is getting dangerous due to neglect by the city, and their reluctance to let us work on it or get us the keys to the equipment shed.
Tessyier removed the rubber in the fifth and both teams pitched without it.
We open the playoffs next Sunday July 22nd, agains the 3 seed in the other division, which will be either the Bulldogs or the Militia.
Commish says the cross-divisional playoff games are a means to not punish the stronger division, which makes sense, but I think it may cause issues in the second round if both two seeds advance there isn’t a way to properly re-seed, since all season we’ve been playing for best division record. No matter what Joe does someone will be unhappy. Playoff seeding won’t be what keeps us from playing for another championship, if we don’t get out of the semis it will be lack of pitching depth necessary to win a 3 game series. We’ll figure something out.
The Ducks play the Black Sox Sunday night at 9pm at Moore Park.
South Oakland (7-1, 10-6-2) defeated the Brookline Black Sox(2-6, 7-10) and long-time nemesis pitcher Pete Chalfin, by a score of 5-2 Saturday night to clinch at least the second seed in the Monongahela Division.
I wasn’t at the game, but apparently Fago hit a triple and Swartwout put one off the wall in right center, which is about a 400 ft shot. Ken Cool, I’m sure, was dominant.
Fago pitched a complete game and hit double digit strikeouts.
We were without four starters for this one.
Apparently, Saturday night was Chalfin’s last game in the league as he is moving somewhere to do something to better his life, so good for him and for the Ducks. He was one of the toughest pitchers I’ve faced, one of the few guys I really don’t like hitting against. Not that that means a lot coming from a guy who’s primary offensive weapons are the flare to right, and leaning in to inside curveballs, but players far better than I will tell you Pete was a tough competitor and made the Black Sox a lot better. He was also an avid reader and commentator on the blog, back when people avidly read and commented. So thanks for that, Pete.
Two of the most memorable and crushing Ducks losses came at the hands of Chalfin and the Black Sox, a 1-0 thriller in 2009 when he dueled it out with Mike Fletcher, and a 5-4 ten-inning affair in the 2009 playoffs the year the Black Sox upset the Owlz, and lost to the Hurricanes in the finals.
Two of the Ducks biggest wins were over Chalfin: Guthrie defeated Chalfin to clinch the Championship for the Ducks in 2010, and this year Fago out-pitched him to earn South Oakland a playoff spot and keep us out in front of the Cherokee in the division race. I’m glad we could send him out with a loss. Take that splitter and don’t come back.
*
Huge win last night for South Oakland. Now the Black Sox are playing for their playoff lives, without their ace, and we’re in the driver’s seat for the division having won nine of eleven.
The Ducks next game is wed night at home against Cranberry.
Quack.
Typically the Black Sox start slow and pull it together 1/4 of the way through the season. It’s taken longer this year, but they’ll be tough tonight. Especially at home.
Our victory over Brookline earlier this season was our 4th straight regular season win over the Black Sox dating back to last season.
And it was the first time in a long time the Ducks and Sox met with both teams under .500.
The Ducks have won 8 of our last 10, getting it together a bit earlier that Brookline this year, after a similarly rough start.
Since dropping 3 straight to the Cherokee, the Black Sox have won 4 straight.
Kenny Powers must be coachin’ ’em up down there, or over there, whichever.
We can clinch a playoff spot and the second seed in the division with a win tonight, plus we’d gain a half game on the idle Cherokee. A Cranberry loss tomorrow would also clinch us a spot, but hopefully they beat Clinton.
The Ducks-Sox rivalry has been kind of lost in the shuffle with Ken Cool’s brother seceding from the Ducks with two-thrids of our pitching staff, but tonight in Moore Park it’ll be in full swing. I love playing there those fans make it feel like our games matter in a way that adult-league baseball in June normally doesn’t.
We can write ourselves a great story for this season if we keep winning and take the division, a win tonight gets us a lot closer.
Bad News for the Black Sox
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.
quack
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.
***
Despite a 9 – 3 overall record, Clinton is half a game back in the division race. First place is on the line.
This game is so important Ken Cool’s brother rescheduled the Cherokee calendar shoot so the team could take extra bp.
We’re down a few key players, but the Cherokee have played fifteen games in the last three days so that’s a wash.
I don’t think they’ll bat 12 tonight.
We need someone to step up.
South Oakland Ducks Baseball 