Despite Cold Bats, Ducks Find Timely Hit,

by Coach TC Jones

Long gone is the blustery Pittsburgh winter, but icicles still cling to the South Oakland Ducks’ bats. As the spring temperature begins to rise the Duck’s offense still is waiting to heat up. In the first two games of the season Duck’s batters have only amassed a total of 4 hits and only 1 extra base hit.

A mix of untimely errors and stagnant offense proved to be the downfall in last Saturday’s 15-1 rout by the Brookline Blacksox, and in Monday night’s contest at Spring View Field against the visiting Eagles it looked like once again the Duckss bats would not be able to come up with the victory.

Behind five solid innings thrown by starter Mark Guthrie (3 Runs, 1 Earned Run) and two shutout innings by reliever Nick Homa including four strikeouts, the boys from South Oakland were able to come to bat in the bottom of the 7^th inning with a 3-3 tie.

The cold hitting ways of the Ducks continued at the beginning of the inning with strikeouts by third baseman Chris Wojoton and pinch hitter Adam Smith before pinch hitter Andrew McCray was hit by a pitched. In the following at bat a costly error by the Eagles short-stop allowing runners to reach first and second safely.

Swinging at a first pitch fastball, DH Garrett Moore hit a soft liner over the first baseman’s head into right field scoring McCray to win the game in exciting fashion. For a moment it looked as if there would be a play at the plate as McCray, crippled by a torn meniscus in his right knee, hobbled his way around the bases. An errant throw by Eagles right fielder allowed McCray to score standing up for the first Ducks win of the season. The Ducks increase their record to 1-1 while the Eagles fall to 0-2.

Ducks Notes:

--Starter Mark Guthrie showed good control walking only three and striking out four in 5 innings of work.

--Hard-throwing reliever Nick Homa got his first win of the year throwing 2 shut-out innings.

--In the first two games the Ducks as a team are 4 for 46 (.086) hitting.

--A total of 15 different Ducks players saw time in the game.

--In 2 games the South Oakland Ducks defense allowed 12 errors.