MUSKEGON- Strong pitching and great defense go a long way in baseball.

The Muskegon Clippers have shown in recent days that they can deliver both, and the season is starting to look a bit brighter.

The Clippers held their opponent to just one run in the final six innings of Saturday night’s victory, and continued their stretch of great pitching and defense on Sunday night in the finale of a six-game home stand

Muskegon held the Royal Oak Leprechauns to just one run, while only committing one error, which led to a 7-1 victory at Marsh Field.

The Clippers have now won two in a row and are 3-3 on the season, which is good for a third-place tie in the North Division of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate Baseball League.

Muskegon will now start a short three-game road trip, starting on Tuesday night against the Sandusky Ice Haulers.

“(Tyler) Petersen pitched his butt off and that was fun to watch, and he just did it with a fastball,” said Clippers manager Logan Fleener about the starting and winning pitcher. “I also looked up on the scoreboard in the seventh and saw a zero in the error column, and we haven’t been able to do that.

“Guys wanted to show up early today and work on their defense and it certainly paid off.”

Petersen, who joined the Clippers late in the season last year, tossed six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and striking out four batters.

“I came in with a game plan to work away and throw sliders down the middle and off the plate,” Petersen said. “I just had confidence today to throw strikes, and I knew if I did that they were not going to beat me.”

Daniel Gutierrez, Joe Wade and Connor Vallie each pitched an inning of relief and combined to give up just one run on three hits in three innings.

The Clippers did not have huge offensive numbers, only managing four hits as a team. But they scored seven runs, mostly by playing small ball and running the bases very aggressively.

“We preached as fast as we could (to the players) that if we play small ball and team baseball, we are going to win a lot of games,” Fleener said. “Sometimes that’s not what the players want to hear – they want to get their home runs and their at bats in, but these guys said that if they get the bunt sign from coaches that they are going to get it done.”

The Clippers scored on a sacrifice fly in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead, then added two more runs in the third on a wild pitch and another sacrifice fly to take a 3-0 lead.

Muskegon added four runs in the seventh inning on an RBI single from Spencer Nelson and a bases-clearing three-run double by Jacob Anderson.

“We got off to a slow start at home, but I think we are starting to get the chemistry going,” Anderson said about the first week of the season. “We are going to keep competing. I was staying aggressive, and I took a full count fastball and guided it to the opposite field.”

Anderson finished with four RBIs along with one hit, while Colin Cornwell had two hits to lead the team.