South Oakland

Ducks Win. 4th Seed Likely Clinched.

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Ducks win, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

The South Oakland Ducks of the North Side defeated the Carrick Express 5-2 in Carrick last night. Chuck Zuzak (W, 5-2) pitched a complete game for the victory, and Erik Tuomisto drove in 2 runs in his final game as a Duck. The win moves the Ducks (12-11) into a tie for fourth place with the Oilers (11-10-2). Carrick falls to 8-13-1 with the loss.

The Ducks scored a run in the first after Chartier singled to left and moved Gwin to third. Gwin scored on a throwing error on an attempted pickoff.

In the top of the second inning, Tuomisto drove in a run on a bases loaded sac-fly and the Ducks scored again on two-out single by Morgan to make the score 3-0.

Carrick scored in the bottom half of the inning to close the gap to 3-1.

The Ducks added a run in the 5th on an RBI double by Tuomisto. Carrick scored in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 4-2, but the Ducks added another run in the 7th on a sac bunt and a throwing error that allowed Casale to score all the way from from first.

 

Thursday Night

Other stuff:

  • Zuzak worked out of a bases loaded, no outs jam in the second inning.
  • Lonnie Petril made a great catch down the line in right to save a run in the third.
  • In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and the tying run on second, an Express player tried to steal home and was thrown out. Great poise by Chuck to calmly step off and throw him out.
  • Ducks right fielder, Brian Strom went 2-for-2 with a double and a walk in his return from the disabled list.
  • We recorded a season high 2 sac bunts in the game.
  • Joe Graff and Andrew McCray each recorded a HBP.
  • We definitely have hit harder throwers better this season. We beat Carrick’s ace, and swept the season series against a solid opponent.

ducks invade

An Oilers loss in their suspended game against the Rebels (Shaler is up big going into the bottom of the 4th) or a Ducks win vs. West View on Sunday, will clinch a first round bye for the Ducks.

Ducks first baseman, Erik Tuomisto is moving. He finishes his career with a .500 batting average and leads the team in RBI over the last two seasons. He will be missed.

South Oakland finishes the regular season Sunday night against West View.

quack

 

 

 

Gameday 21: Ducks vs. Cranberry

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (11-9)

vs

Cranberry (7-12-2)

9PM

Springview Field

Tonight is throwback night in Spring Hill. The Ducks will wear uniforms representing teams across 14 seasons of the Pittsburgh NABA. I think Cranberry might breakout their inaugural 2010 unis for the event as well.

The Ducks look to bounce back from a bad loss in Shaler Monday night. Cranberry has an impressive two ties on the season.

There’s a log-jam in the 2-6 spots in the standings. We’ve got to get a couple wins down the stretch here and we tend to play better at home.

I haven’t seen our best hitter in like a month, but we have a lot of guys who can step in and contribute.

bad news bears

Bad News for Cranberry

 

 

Ducks Lose. Rebels 13, Ducks 3

2016 South Oakland Ducks

bane

Rebels pitcher Rob Bane pitched a complete game and also hit a solo homer, leading the Rebels to a 13-3 rout of the Ducks in Shaler.

South Oakland sent eight batters to the plate in the first, but could only get one run across then Shaler scored 8 in the second and it was basically over.

Our starter didn’t have his stuff, and the plate ump wasn’t great and it all compounded into an ass kicking. Hats off to the Rebels. We will have a better effort for them when we face them again in a week.

South Oakland drops to 11-9 on the season. The Rebels improved to 9-8 with the win.

South Oakland’s next game is Wednesday vs. Cranberry. 9PM at Springview Field.

 

Gameday 20: Ducks at Rebels

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball, who names their team the Rebels?

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (11-8)

at

Shaler Rebels (8-8)

6pm

Stoneridge Field

We lost to these guys in 9 innings the first time we played them, so it should be another close game. The standings are real close 2 through 5, and we have chance to get some breathing room between us and Shaler with a win. Good luck getting across town at rush hour.

Doc’s on the hill tonight.

Gameday 18: Ducks vs. Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side

vs.

Carrick Express

6PM

Springview Field

The Ducks look to bounce back after a tough loss at the hands of the Devils and get back into the thick of the division race today.

This is only the second non-night game we’ve played at Springview. It will be a whole different experience, I’m’ sure.

We have won two, one-run games against Carick this season so it figures to be another close one tonight. A win will give us the season series win and the first playoff tie-breaker over the Express. With the standings as close as they are, tie-breakers are likely going to figure in to playoff seeding and avoiding the play-in game is huge.

Injury update: Pittsburgh NABA all-time leader in hit batsmen and current Ducks RBI leader, Brian Strom, is out indefinitely with what appears to be a dislocated thumb. He made a diving catch last game in the second inning, popped his thumb back in and finished the game.

Strom will be with us in spirit.

KellyLeak_cig

 Bad News for the Express

 

 

Ducks Lose. plus bonus coverage of near brawl in WOLFPACK vs. Oilers

2016 South Oakland Ducks, NABA, pittsburgh NABA

We’ve now lost 3 times to the 6-11 Devils. Our record is 10-8. We were flat after a big win over the Oilers on Tuesday and made a bunch of errors. We are probably the only reason the Devils haven’t folded, so I guess it’s good for the league that we’ve struggled against them.

We play the Express this Saturday, 6pm at Spring Hill.

ducks baseball

Despite the loss to the last place Devils last night, we are still 1.5 out of first thanks to BIG OIL drilling the WOLFPACK 4-0 last night in West View

Sources close to the Ducks report that the game got out of hand when a Wolfpack player tried to take out the Oilers’ three-hitter with an elbow to the face during a rundown. Not a hard slide, but an elbow to the face.

Oilers pitcher Dan Rueff shut down West View, throwing a one-hitter through 5 innings. When Rueff came to bad later in the game, the West View pitcher threw at his head.

There was a bizarre report of the WOLFPACK coach using stall tactics that don’t even make sense, regarding cars parked in center field. This shit is too weird to make up.

I’m not a gracious loser, but what an embarrassment.

For the five of you who still read the blog, You can now comment without creating an  account with a fake email address. So go ahead and comment like it’s blogspot 2009.

quack.

 

 

Gameday 18: Ducks vs. Devils

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (10-7)

vs.

South Hills Devils (5-11)

9PM

Springview Field

We are responsible for 40% of the Devils’ wins this season with a 1-2 overall record vs. South Hills. Pitching is thin for us tonight, but they’re coming off two games this weekend too, so it should even out. Who knows. We need someone to step up.

bad_news_bears1

Bad News for the Devils

 

Ducks Win 3-2. Umps Not Terrific.

2016 South Oakland Ducks

South Oakland of the North Side defeated the Carrick Express 3-2 in a bizarrely officiated game, Saturday night in Carrick. DiPiaola (W, 4-1) threw his first complete game of the season for the victory. He struck out the last batter of the game. Brian Grundle pitched well for Carrick in the loss, also going seven innings and generally keeping the Ducks off balance.

The Ducks (9-7) scored three runs in the first and held Carrick (6-8) to two runs over the final six inning to hold on for the win.

We made key defensive plays to cut down the tying run at the plate on a chopper to the pitcher, and turned a double play to end a threat in the third. So far, we’ve won more close games than we’ve lost this season, which is the sign of a good team.

There were bad calls against both teams in this game, which is a shame because it was a well played and well pitched game that could have gone either way. The plate ump forgot the count and missed a fair/foul call on a potential double that went against the Ducks, and made a few bad calls on pitches against the Express. It probably evened out, but who knows. You can’t fix one call and then replay everything in a vacuum. The space time continuum would collapse on itself.

Doc_Brown

The Ducks play next on Tuesday night 6:45 at Mellon Park vs. the Oilers.

Gameday 16: Ducks Vs. Express

2016 South Oakland Ducks, Gameday, NABA, pittsburgh NABA, South Oakland Ducks Baseball

South Oakland Ducks of the North Side (8-7)

vs.

Carrick Express (6-7)

9pm

Springview Field

Big game tonight as the Ducks try to gain ground on the WOLFPACK and keep pace with BIG OIL and a resurgent Eagles team.

The standings are tighter than traffic on Sawmill Run Blvd.

A win puts us in a tie for second with the Oilers, and a loss drops us back into a three-way tie for fourth with the Express and Rebels, both of whom would have games in-hand.

We beat Carrick earlier this season on an Andy Nichols walk-off single. Figures to be another close one tonight.

KellyLeak_cig

  Bad News for the Express