MUSKEGON – It took most of the game, but the Muskegon Clippers finally showed their fans that they have some fight in them.

The game didn’t look promising for most of the evening, with the Clippers falling behind early and leaving multiple runners stranded on base.

But they finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring four runs to erase a two-run deficit, then held on to grab a much-needed 6-5 win over the Royal Oak Leprechauns at Marsh Field on Saturday night.

The victory broke Muskegon-s two-game losing streak and improved its record to 2-3 on the young season. The ‘Clippers will compete their three-game series with Royal Oak, and their six-game homestand, with a final matchup on Sunday at 7 p.m.

“We were in the sixth with the bases loaded and we didn’t score,” said Clippers manager Logan Fleener. “You start to get that feeling that if we can just get one it’s going to start something. We just needed one of those big hits and the gates would start to flood open.”

It all happened in the eighth inning, when the Clippers trailed 4-2 and had two outs.

August Hutchison and A.J. Miranda each drew a walk, and Lukas Bolton reached base on a strikeout when the pitch went wild, loading the bases for the Clippers.

They tied the game on a wild pitch and throwing error that allowed two runs to score.

Muskegon completed the comeback with an RBI single by Cooper Mills to take a 5-4 lead, then added a needed insurance run on a single by Colin Cornwell.

Royal Oak managed to score a run on a wild pitch with one out in the ninth inning, but relief pitcher Isaac Toole struck out the last two batters and left the tying run on second base.

Toole earning the victory on the mound by allowing just one late run on one hit in six innings while striking out eight batters.

“He (Toole) came out of the bullpen tonight and gave us one of the first big performances we have had so far this season,” Fleener said. “He had a run of getting out 12 or 15 batters straight.”

“My goal was to put zeros on the board when I went in the game,” Toole said. “I wanted our hitters to have a chance to stay in the game. I had confidence in myself. I  was a little nervous with guys on base in the ninth, but my curveball was working really well, and I was confident with that.”

Jacob Anderson also helped keep the Clippers in the game before the comeback by driving in a pair of runs with a double and a single.

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