A Night of Home Runs and Heroics
The Utica Unicorns and Westside Woolly Mammoths opened the game with a flurry of offense, trading blows that kept fans on the edge of their seats. After an early two‑run homer by Dalton Pearson put Westside ahead, the Unicorns answered with a solo shot from Jason Givens in the second inning, setting the tone for a contest that would swing back and forth.
Matt McGann extended Westside’s lead with a solo homer in the same frame, pushing the score to 3‑2. Utica’s offense rallied, as Ryan Enos tied the game at 3‑3 with his seventh home run of the season, and later, Givens struck again in the sixth to level the contest at 4‑4, sending the game into sudden‑victory overtime.
The deadlock persisted through eight innings, forcing a sudden‑victory format. In that decisive moment, Garrett Harker entered from the bullpen and shut down Westside’s bats, allowing just one hit over 1.2 innings. His effort earned him the win, while Gavin Brasosky took the loss for the Mammoths.
Utica finished with six hits, three of them leaving the yard, while Westside collected seven. Trevor Sharp had opened the relief corps with 1.1 scoreless innings before Harker’s takeover. The final score read 5‑4 in favor of the Unicorns, a testament to timely hitting and clutch pitching.