Sunday, June 22, 2008

Game thirteen: If 6 was 9... Ducks 5, Bulldogs 6




The South Oakland Ducks (5-8-1) lost on a 2-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning, by the Bulldogs' ten-hitter.
It was a pitchers' duel early.
The Bulldogs went ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the third thanks to three unearned runs.
South Oakland tied the game 3-3 in the top of sixth on Coby Kolaja's RBI single.
The Bulldogs scored another unearned run on a two out error in the bottom of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead.
In the top of the seventh, South Oakland scored two runs after KT Murphy walked to lead-off the inning, stole second, and then moved to third on a ground out by TC Jones.
Nick Homa singled in Murphy, and then Eric Lee sacrificed Homa to second.
Gwin singled to left to give the Ducks a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the seventh. The Ducks would leave the bases loaded in the seventh.
The Bulldogs came to bat in the bottom of the seventh, down by one, with their seventh hitter leading off the inning.
Then after a single, a fielder's choice and a walk, the last hitter in the Bulldogs' order came through with a drive to the left center gap to end the game.

The Ducks played without six starters and fought hard.
Starter Nick Homa (2-3) pitched well enough to win. He threw a five-hit complete game.


The game was originally scheduled to be played at 9pm in Etna, but was moved to Avonworth Field at 6pm, due to a problem with the lights in Etna. The schedule change didn't occur until Friday, after many Ducks' players had made plans to leave town, and return in time for what they thought was a 9pm start. It's not an excuse, just symptomatic of how the chips have fallen this season.


If it wasn't for bad luck...


  • This was painful to write
  • The Bulldogs played without Rick Beyer, last season's batting champion.
  • Brian Strom got the win for the Bulldogs. Hats off to them, they made key plays in the infield and kept us off the score board early. Catcher, Joe Graff made a nice pick on a low throw from the short stop to record a run saving 6-2 put-out in the sixth.
  • There were a few kids on the Bulldogs who appeared to go to the plate with the sole intention of earning a base on balls. That's what I always dreamed of as a kid, getting into the batters' box and taking four borderline pitches to draw a walk.
  • Nick wasn't awfully wild, and the defense wasn't terrible. We just made the errors after the walks.
  • Another wasted outing by a Ducks' starter, and another game where we didn't start playing until the last two innings.
  • Their first pitcher was tough to hit, but his stuff wasn't overwhelming. He held the Ducks hitless for 5 innings.
  • I'm not one to blame the umpires.
  • This was a great baseball game; there is some solace to take in playing good competitive baseball.
  • We have to win seven or eight of our last ten games, and get help to make the playoffs.
  • I should have had that last fly ball, I was out of position, the sky had turned gray, I got a bad jump and took a bad line. It carried. That's a play I can and should make, especially after lobbying to play outfield.
  • Coby had a clutch game tying RBI and a phenomenal diving catch in right field.
  • Attendance must improve if we are to win enough games to get into the playoffs.


The Ducks are still mathematically alive for playoff contention