MUSKEGON – Logan Fleener just got done helping a college baseball team come close to winning a national championship, and he’s in the mood to win a lot more games before the summer is over.

That’s that approach he’s taking as he starts his first season as manager of the Muskegon Clippers.

Fleener is on the coaching staff at Tennessee Wesleyan College, and his team competed in the NAIA national championship tournament in Idaho last week.

The Bulldogs finished third in the nation, which was pretty impressive, then Fleener boarded a plane, made a few quick stops down south, and drove to Muskegon.

He arrived a day after the new group of Clippers players started trickling in and immediately dove into preparations.

Like every year, the players and coaches have only had a few days to assemble, introduce themselves to each other and practice a few times before the season opener, and that day has almost arrived.

The Clippers will open the 2022 season on Tuesday at Marsh Field against Jet Box at 7 p.m. in the first of a three-game series.

It will be a passing-of-the-torch day for the Clippers, because Fleener will become only the second manager in the history of the team, taking over for beloved longtime manager Walt Gawkowski, who retired after last season and is now the general manager.

The Clippers are very much a family organization, with Pete Gawkowski owning the team, Walt now serving as GM, and other family members serving in various roles. Fleener, who played one season for the Clippers back in 2016, is honored that they turned to him to manage the squad.

Fleener is not a Muskegon native or resident, but his father, Mark Fleener, grew up in Norton Shores and played baseball at Mona Shores, his uncle Greg Fleener is the boys and girls varsity soccer coach at Oakridge High School, and he feels a strong connection to the Clippers and the city.

“It’s my first managing experience, and I’m as excited as I could be,” said Fleener, 27, a resident of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. “We definitely want to hold the standard up. We want to do it for the Gawkowski family. Those guys put a lot into this organization. This is like a child to them. They love it that much. They are trusting me with these 32 guys, and that brings me excitement and good pressure.”

Fleener will be taking over a team that’s coming off a mediocre season. The Clippers were 20-21-1 last season and finished in fifth place in the Northern Division of the Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League.

That’s not the type of record that Fleener has in mind, and he knows a little bit about winning with the Clippers. During his one season with the team, the Clippers won the Michigan Summer Collegiate Baseball League championship and a North American Baseball Federation regional title.

“It was a really good summer,” Fleener said.

While he doesn’t know a great deal about the new group of Clippers, who come from college teams across the state and nation, he believes the team has the potential to be very strong.

“We spent a good amount of time finding these guys,” said Fleener, who helped Walt Gawkowski assemble the roster in the offseason. “These guys have some of the best offensive numbers we’ve seen coming in. There are a lot of pieces to be excited about.

“I think one strength is that we’re going to play pretty good defense. In a wood bat league, if you pitch well and play good defense, a lot of opponents are going to run themselves into a lot of outs.

“Another strength is that we have a lot of very athletic guys, and that’s important because we want to run a lot and put pressure on the other teams. Some nights we might drive the ball out of the park, but on other nights we’re going to put the ball in play, hit balls to the gaps and run a lot.”

Fleener mentioned a few players that he thinks have good potential for strong seasons.

Two possible power hitters will be infielders Jacob Anderson and Trenton Nielsen, who were both red-shirted this spring on their college teams but can put up big numbers.

The starting pitching rotation will include Parker Swanson, Paxton Miller and Mason Glennie, while Isaac Toole is expected to be a starter and reliever. Fleener said Ethan Houghtaling could end up playing a big role out of the bullpen.

“The last couple of days we have just tried to get them to move together, work on situations in the field, get to know each other and spend some time together,” Fleener said. “The most important thing is to get these guys to trust each other and play together.”

Fleener said there should be no problem getting the players motivated heading into the new season, despite their unfamiliarity with each other and the city.

“When you get here, with 31 new guys around you, you want to show the other players that you belong,” he said. “Early on everybody will be running on adrenaline.”