MUSKEGON – Logan Fleener is only 27 – not a great deal older than his players – and he’s a first-time manager.

Nobody would have been surprised if someone in his position took a lighter approach toward leading the Muskegon Clippers, particularly in summer collegiate baseball, which is typically less intense than regular season college baseball.

But Fleener wants to win a lot of games this summer, and he also wants his players to push themselves and improve for their own benefit.

The Clippers were not winning many games at the start of the season a few weeks ago, largely because they weren’t hitting very much at all.

Last week, after they lost the first of a three-game road series to the Sandusky Ice Haulers – while only managing two hits – Fleener sat the Clippers down at their hotel in Ohio and gave it to them straight.

“It was a lot about taking some pride,” said Fleener, a former Clippers player who serves on the coaching staff at Tennessee Wesleyan College during the regular college season. “Our numbers were pretty bad, so we got together in the hotel in the breakfast area and talked about what our offense was supposed to be and what we thought it could be, and how we weren’t reaching our potential.

“I think at times we were letting one bad at-bat take over the whole game. And sometimes the guys were very passive at the plate. They were taking first pitches and early strikes that were pretty hittable, waiting for the perfect pitch.

“We were kicking the ball around pretty bad defensively, too, and I think that had a bit of an effect on the offense. This game is about momentum, and I just felt like if we could start controlling the momentum offensively, this team could really do something special.”

The manager’s message clearly reverberated.

Later that night the Clippers put up 10 hits in a 7-6 loss to Sandusky. Among those hits were a home run by Spencer Nelson, along with three doubles and two triples by other players.

On Thursday they exploded for a season-high 16 hits in a 13-3 win over the Ice Haulers. The Clippers had three homers in the win, from Nelson, Trent Nielsen and AJ Miranda. The team also piled up six doubles in the game, including two from Jacob Anderson.

The trend continued into Friday night when the Clippers pounded out 12 more hits in an 11-10 comeback win at home over the Michigan Monarchs. August Hutchinson ended the game in the 10^th inning with a dramatic walk-off homer. Nielsen also homered and the Clippers totaled four doubles.

In their first seven games of the season the Clippers were averaging a meager 5.2 hits per game. In the five games since then they are averaging 10.2.

Suddenly they are second in the league in total runs scored with 84, second in doubles with 23, and tied for second in RBIs with 65.

Most fun of all, they are leading the league in home runs with nine.

The top hitter on the team at the moment is Nelson, from Grand Valley State University, who has a .325 average with three homers and 13 RBIs.

The newfound offense has turned the Clippers’ season around. After starting out with a 1-3 record, they are 5-3 in their last eight games.

The 6-6 Clippers are in fourth place in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate Baseball League’s Northern Division, but the standings are deceptive. They are only two games out of first place and will host the first-place Lima Locos in a four-game series this week, beginning with a doubleheader on Tuesday at Marsh Field.

“We went right out that night (after the meeting) and played really hard,” Fleener said. “We lost, but we had 10 hits for the first time all year, with some extra-base hits. That was more of what we were looking for. Then the next night we had 16 hits and scored 13 runs.

“It’s not just because we had a meeting, but sometimes something like that gives guys an opportunity to lock back in and look at things from the bigger picture. I thought there was a chance they might be like, ‘This guy is crazy up there, talking like that in the middle of the summer, and he’s not our school coach.’ But we wanted them to know we care. Yes, we want to win games, but we also want them to have a good experience, and to do that we have to coach our butts off.”

Nielsen, a big first baseman who plays collegiately at Colorado College of Mines, said Fleener did not mince words during the team meeting.

“There was no BS,” said Nielsen, who is still struggling with a .222 batting average, but has three homers, three doubles and 12 RBIs. “The thing about Skip, he shoots straight, and I love it. He’s a great coach. I think the meeting lit a fire under us, and we started playing as a team, not just a summer league team. We brought a lot of energy to both of our series this week and enjoyed it a lot.”

Jacob Anderson, an infielder from Oakland University, echoed those sentiments about the team meeting.

“I think it was much needed,” said Anderson, who is hitting .304 with six doubles, one triple and eight RBIs. “It was a big boost for us. Before that, we were going up to the plate with no approach or aggressiveness. Now we’re going up with more confidence. He told us that we were lacking as a team, said we were capable of much more, and we took it to heart.

“I love this team, and the chemistry is there. We’re a brotherhood now. It took a couple of losses, but I think we’re on the right track.”