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Fowl Ball!
Weekly report on the by Jason Eisenberg Ducks take over division lead The Long Island Ducks are flying high right now. Just one month ago, nobody could have believed that the team was capable of going on the kind of streak that has now seen them finally land atop the North Division standings. It is the first time this season that Long Island has been in sole possession of first place. "Now the momentum is in our favor," manager Don McCormack said after a win this past week, "We will just try to ride it as long as we can because we are on a roll." Back in the first week of August, the Ducks were seven games out of the top spot in their division and it seemed likely that this number would only increase. The team had already finished in last place for the first half of the season and even with the benefit of a clean slate, thanks to the Atlantic League format of a split-season, the Ducks lost 12 of their first 19 games to start the second half. Then everything suddenly changed and Long Island has been, by far, the hottest team in the league ever since. For the last four weeks, the Ducks have been on a tear, winning games in all possible ways while overcoming just about every obstacle in their path, and they are not looking back. High-scoring games, pitchers duels, home runs, small ball, extra innings, at home or on the road, Long Island has stepped up to each and every challenge. Over the course of this streak, many of the players have mentioned similar reasons for the sudden turnaround. "Everything started clicking and we started to streak," said pitcher Lance Davis. "The breaks are finally going our way, and while there was no run support earlier in the season, now the offense is there almost every night." Fellow pitcher Justin Lamber recently agreed with this assessment. "It is great to have run support," Lamber said, "we are much more confident when pitching with the lead and recently the offense has not only been able to provide that but our hitting has even carried us in many games." The Ducks certainly have been putting up a lot of runs recently which has helped relieve some of the pressure on the team’s pitching staff. The offense was again on display this past week when Long Island beat Bridgeport 13-12 last Wednesday night. This kind of run production by the Ducks hitters has happened quite a few times during the past few weeks. "Right now we are feeling pretty invincible the way we are swinging the bat," outfielder Dominick Ambrosini said after the game, "With the team doing it on a routine basis, it really feels great and makes for some fun games to play in." To put this recent stretch into perspective, consider that through Monday night’s game, the Ducks second half record stands at 25-20 and the team has a half-game lead over the Nashua Pride for first place. This means that Long Island has won 18 of their last 26 games and they have not lost a series since the first week of August, going 5-0-2 in their last seven. "That’s baseball, it’s about being hot," Ducks catcher Ryan Owen recently stated, "we started to play better as a team, everything began coming together and that is when you start winning, it is as simple as that." During the past week, the Ducks showed that they can win now, even when they are not playing their best ball. In fact, the team could have won all eight games they played between last Monday and this Monday if not for giving up large leads late in two games with Camden on Saturday and Sunday. Long Island still managed to win six of the eight games even though it took two come-from-behind wins just to beat the last-place Bridgeport Bluefish. The Ducks also accomplished something they had not been able to do up to this point in the season: win a game in extra innings. They actually did it twice in the past week, including Monday night’s 14-inning marathon to open a series with the Somerset Patriots. Long Island won the game 4-3 off the strength of four solo homeruns, two each from Carlos Hernandez and Henry Rodriguez, and with Nashua losing earlier, the Ducks moved back into first place. NOTES •Closer Todd Erdos has returned to the team and pitcher Brian Bowles was released to make room on the roster. Also, pitcher Luis Arroyo was placed on the inactive list after a shaky start against Camden over the past weekend. •Armando Rios continues to swing a hot bat and played a big role in the Ducks’ series sweep of Bridgeport. Rios went 7-for-11 with three home runs, five runs scored and six RBI’s during this three game stretch. •With the playoff race heating up, the Ducks will be playing much of the last month of their schedule at home in Citibank Park. After finishing up their four game series in Somerset, Long Island will return home for the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend and will play 13 of their last 22 games in the home park. Tickets are available for most of the remaining games and can be purchased by going to the Citibank Park box office, calling 1-888-332-5600, or by visiting; www.liducks.com and clicking on the tickets icon.
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