The Muskegon Clippers were bound to lose a game sooner or later, and it finally happened on Tuesday night when they fell 7-0 to the Sandusky Ice Haulers in a key division road game.

The Clippers remain in first place in the Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League’s North Division with an 8-1 record. Second-place Sandusky is only a half game behind at 8-2 while Lima is hot on the trail at 7-3.

Muskegon and Sandusky will play the second of their three-game series on Wednesday night in Ohio.

The first three innings of Tuesday’s game were scoreless, then Sandusky took control with two runs in the fourth inning, one in the fifth, two in the sixth and two more in the eighth.

Clippers starting pitcher DJ Thompson took the loss, giving up five runs on six hits with four walks and one strikeout in 5 1/3 innings.

The Clippers’ bats were unusually quiet, totaling only three hits, from Aaron Piasecki, Nicolas Hawkins and Stoney Smith.

Muskegon was also hurt by a very uncharacteristic five errors.