MUSKEGON – You just never know who’s going to have a big game for the Muskegon Clippers.

Lots of heroes have emerged on different nights, allowing the Clippers to get off to an amazing 12-1 start this season.

The latest was Australian native Nicolas Hawkins, who delivered a three-run homer on the fifth inning on Saturday, giving Muskegon its final margin of victory in an 8-5 win over the Michigan Monarchs at Marsh Field.

“I felt very comfortable going into that at-bat,” said Hawkins, whose homer gave the Clippers an 8-2 lead. “It looked like they were going to change the pitcher, but they didn’t, so I decided to try to get into his head. I saw a first-pitch fastball, so I hammered it.”

The Clippers will try to complete a weekend sweep of the Monarchs on Sunday when the teams meet up again in Howell at 7 p.m. They will return home on Tuesday to play a doubleheader against the Detroit-based Jet Box Baseball Club.

Saturday’s game was much different than Friday’s, when the Clippers and Monarchs combined to score a gaudy 30 runs and Muskegon won by 10.

“I thought today that we squared up the ball a whole lot better,” said Clippers Manager Logan Fleener. “I would have liked to get their starter oout a little sooner, but it’s hard to come up with a lot of negatives right now.”

The Monarchs led 1-0 in the first inning after an RBI single by Connor Cornwell.

The Clippers quickly responded in the bottom of the first with an RBI sacrifice fly from Donovan Rinehart to tie the game up.

Muskegon took the lead in the third inning with an RBI double from Stoney Smith, then added two more runs in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Caleb Sanders and an RBI single by Luke Kerrins.

The Monarchs responded with a run in the fifth inning on a double steal with runners at the corners to cut Muskegon’s advantage to 4-2.

The Clippers increased their lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth after scoring on a wild pitch, then Hawkins delivered his big three-run blow.

The Monarchs scored a run in the sixth on an error and two in the seventh on a single from Nate Saavedra to cut the deficit to three runs.

Muskegon’s closing pitcher. Brandon Scheurer, came into the game in the eighth inning to deliver a six-out save.

Starting pitcher Matthew Hoover tossed the win for the Clippers, allowing two earned runs on seven hits in six innings while striking out six batters.

The Clippers were paced offensively by Hawkins with two hits, three RBIs and two runs while Smith and Kerrins each added three hits, one RBI and one run.

Rinehart chipped in with two hits, an RBI and a run.