Utica wins third straight USPBL crown
UTICA >> Jon Hodo’s single in the bottom of the tenth scored Isaac Phillips and won the game for the Utica Unicorns, who claimed their third straight United Shore Professional Baseball League title with a 6-5 win over the Eastside Diamond Hoppers Sunday afternoon at Jimmy John’s Field.
“We were just trying to keep everybody together. It’s a long game. You don’t stop until the last out, Drew (Galassi) had that big hit. We’ve been playing big all year round. We’ve been picking up each other and playing together. When it came down to the wire, we did it again. So a three-peat is awesome,” Hodo said.
Hodo was the game MVP with three hits and three runs scored in addition to the game winning RBI.
“You know it’s too much fun. It’s a lot of luck, and today was such a great ballgame with a great crowd, great weather. It doesn’t get any better than this,” Unicorns manager Jim Essien said. “We’ve got a solid defense and solid pitching, and we scratched just enough runs across the plate.”
Essien added that, “My hat’s off to the Diamond Hoppers and manager Paul Noce as well on a job well done.”
The Diamond Hoppers seemed poised to claim their first title when Greg Vaughan Jr. launched a ball to straightaway centerfield that cracked the scoreboard for a two-run home run and a 5-3 lead for Eastside.
“We’ve been hitting pretty well, hitting the ball over the fence lately. It just wasn’t meant to be,” Diamond Hoppers manager Paul Noce said.
“It was a good game, good ball game. Hats off to the Unicorns.”
But the Unicorns plated two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game on an RBI single by Colby Johnson and a ground rule double from Drew Galassi that touched off a premature celebration as two runners came around on the drive.
But once order was restored, the runner who had been on first was sent back to third and the Diamond Hoppers escaped the inning at 5-5.
“One out away. They put the ball in play and got a couple little seeing-eye singles and then dropped one on the line to tie it up, and then anything happens after that,” Noce said. “It was a good game.”
The Unicorns defense came up big for them on a handful of occasions, minimizing the traffic on the basepaths when they could.
That became even more important once the Diamond Hoppers started playing long ball. Eastside hit three home runs in the game. In addiction to Vaughn Jr.’s ninth inning blast, Eastside homered twice in the seventh inning when catcher Joe Burke led off the inning with a home run to tie the game 2-2. Two batters later, Nick Kreutzer put the Diamond Hoppers ahead 3-2 with another solo homer.
The Unicorns did not homer in the game; however, they were able to manufacture runs when they needed to. In addition to Hodo’s big day, lead off man Frankie Lucska was on base three times and knocked in two runs.
Zack Jones started and went eight innings for Utica, giving up three runs on seven hits. Jack Ferguson got the win in relief for Utica after pitching a scoreless tenth inning.