Ken Cool

Ducks Clinch Playoff Spot, Defeat Black Sox 5-2.

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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.

GameDay 18: Ducks at Black Sox

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks (6-1, 9-6-2)

vs

Brookline Black Sox (2-5, 7-9)

9pm

Moore Park

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

Ducks Win. South Oakland 5, Express 1

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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

Game Day 16: Ducks vs Express

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (7-6-1)

vs.

Carrick Express (2-9-1)

9pm

SpringView Field

The last time we played Carrick, we lost 11-10 in one of the worst baseball games i’ve been a part of.

Since that loss, we’ve gone 6-2.

There’s no reason we shouldn’t win this game if our pitchers throw strikes. Regradless of the meaningless nature of non-division games, it’s frustrating to be one the 2, for a 2-9 team, and I think overall record is taken into account for tie-breaking purposes should we finish tied with Ken Cool’s brother’s team in the division race.

We’ve lost twice by 15 runs this season so it’s not as if we can take any team lightly, these interdivision games have a way of getting out of hand, and who knows what kind of a mood the umpires will be in.

Maybe, by some miracle we’ll have unis tonight.

Bad News for the Express

Game 15 Recap: Ducks Win

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

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.

Game Day 15: Ducks vs Clinton

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (5 – 1, 6 – 6 – 2)

vs.

Clinton Cherokee (4 – 1, 9 – 3)

9pm

SpringView Field

***

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.

Bad News for the Cherokee

Game Day 14: Ducks vs Elliot

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs

Elliot

9pm

SpringView Field

Elliot (9-2, 4-0) is separating itself from the rest of the Allegheny Division and has the best record in the league. The Ducks are looking to avenge an opening day 7-1 loss to Elliot.

This league has a very high percentage of teams not ending in ‘s.’ – elliot, militia, cranberry, black sox, cherokee. Five out of eight in the AA division. However, in the A division all of the teams do in fact end in ‘s.’ interesting. The Chris Wojton-led Devils won 24 to 9 over the weekend. That game couldn’t have been fun for anyone, certainly not the umpires. I can’t imagine how big the strike zone must have been in the fourth or fifth inning.

The Black Sox dropped three straight to Ken Cool’s brother’s team this weekend (with a ruling on a rain-shortened game pending).

It’s like someone died in Brookline.

I don’t think anyone would have  thought Cranberry and the Black Sox would be battling it out for a playoff spot.

There’s a lot of baseball left, but at 5-1 halfway through our divisional schedule the Ducks are in a good spot.

We’ve had different guys come up big in key situations, and the pitching has improved greatly.

We still haven’t played our best baseball yet.

South Oakland and Elliot both have division games coming up on Wed. We’ll see how this plays out tonight.

Bad News for Elliot

Ducks Win: South Oakland 4, Cranberry 3

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, pittsburgh NABA

Ducks pitcher Robert Patton (2-0) earned his second straight victory, allowing 1 ER over five innings, to lead South Oakland of the North Side (5-1, 6-5-2) past Cranberry (1-3, 4-8) Saturday afternoon.

Cranberry scored a run early with a two out rally in the bottom of the first on a walk and two singles. South Oakland took the lead in the third when with two out, Guthrie singled, Ken Cool was hit by a pitch, and a past ball moved the runners to second and third. Gwin singled in Ken Cool and Guthrie to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead.

In the fifth, South Oakland scored two more runs on an  almost identical series of events. Guthrie walked with two outs. Ken Cool singled and Guthrie advance to third. Ken Cool stole second and Gwin singled in Guthrie and Ken Cool to put the Ducks up 4-1.

Cranberry made it interesting with 2 unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth, the inning ended when Fago threw out a guy trying to steal second.

In the sixth, with runners on first and second and no body out, Ducks first baseman Bobby Swartwout threw out a Cranberry runner at third on a botched sacrifice attempt, then made a nice over the shoulder catch on a pop-up and doubled off the guy at first to end the inning.

Cranberry stranded runners on second and third to end the game.

Ducks outfielder TJ Morgan went 3-for-3 on the day.

***

Earlier in the year we were letting leads slip away into ties, and ridiculous 11-10 losses. It’s good to hold on and win tight games.

Yesterday the Black Sox dropped both games to Clinton, and fell to 0-4 in the division, with another game against the 3-1 Cherokee today at 3pm.

With the Black Sox at 0-4, and Cranberry at 1-3 and those two teams still facing each other three more times, we’ve almost clinched a playoff spot.

I’m really surprised to see Kenny Powers and Brookline in last place.

South Oakland plays Elliot Monday night at 9pm before a huge game against the Cherokee Wednesday night at home with first place on the line.

quackquackquack.

Ducks Win:

2012 South Oakland Ducks Baseball, Ducks win, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland 6, Cranberry 1

Bobby Swartwout (sp) drove in three runs, going 3-for-3 with two doubles and a single off the wall to lead South Oakland (4-1, 5-5-2) past Cranberry Wednesday night. Ducks pitcher James Fago allowed one unearned run over six innings, holding Cranberry to 3 hits and recording an estimated 9 Ks. I have now gone from spelling out numbers to writing them as numerals.

Cranberry scored their run early on a walk, a hit batter, a past ball and an error in some order.

The Ducks tied the game in the third when Ken Cool doubled and scored from second on an infield hit by Gwin who reached third on a double by our new utility infielder. Fago walked and scored on Swartwout’s bases clearing double.

South Oakland added another run on a sac fly by centerfielder TJ Morgan.

I don’t know where we’d be without Morgan this season, and I’m at a complete loss as to how we scored our other run. I think a groundout.

Robert Patton pitched a perfect seventh to preserve the victory.

There are still players on our team who haven’t met each other. There are at least four guys whose names i don’t know, and may never know, but after a brutal start that included a 17 – 1 loss to the Bulldogs, we’re playing better baseball.

We have another important division game against Cranberry Saturday 2pm, at North Boundary Park.

Quack.