MUSKEGON – It’s one thing to sweep a three-game series from an overwhelmed opponent.

It’s quite another to cap off the sweep with a mercy-rule victory two innings early.

The surging Muskegon Clippers did just that on Thursday night, rolling past Jet Box Baseball Club 10-0 at Marsh Field in seven innings.

The Clippers led 5-0 after six innings, then added another five in the bottom of the seventh to bring the game to an end.

The Clippers’ Aidan Arbogast delivers a two-run homer to right-center field. 

The final blow came from outfielder Danny Passinault, who delivered a two-run hit to complete the walk-off.

The Clippers, now 3-0, were completely dominant in the season-opening series, outscoring Jet Box 27-6.

Now they will move on to a new opponent, the Royal Oak Leprechauns, who will visit Marsh Field for a two-game series on Friday and Saturday night, with both games starting at 7 p.m.

“It will be another measurement of how we stack up against somebody else in the league,” said Clippers manager Logan Fleener. “Hopefully we can get another sweep in the series. That’s always fun.”

Charlie Branch delivers a pitch for the Clippers.

The Clippers put 10 runs on the scoreboard with only five hits. They got plenty of help from Jet Box pitchers, who walked 12 Muskegon batters and put five more on base by hitting them with pitches.

“I understand they were not trying to hit people, but I kind of felt for our guys a little bit, with one after another,” Fleener said.

Muskegon created some of its own offense, however, with first baseman Aidan Arbogast leading the way,

He had his biggest hit in the bottom of the third with a two-run homer to right-center field, which was Muskegon’s second round-tripper of the season.

Arbogast touches the bag to get a force out at first base.

“It felt good to finally stay through the slider,” Arbogast said. “He was struggling with his fastball and I was kind of sitting on it and was able to drive it the other way. It was nice to finally get some production. I struggled in our first game but finally figured it out.”

Arbogast added an RBI single in the sixth inning, then came just a few feet away from a game-ending grand slam in the bottom of the seventh. His long fly to left looked like it might have the distance but dropped into the outfielder’s glove just in front of the fence.

The runner on third tagged up and scored, giving Arbogast his fourth RBI of the night. The next batter, Passinault, finished things off with his game-winning hit.

“Almost,” Arbogast said about his near miss in the seventh. “It is what it is. I still helped the team with the sac fly.”

Muskegon’s Caleb Sanders rounds third and heads home while Clippers manager Logan Fleener waves him in. 

The most impressive part of the win might have been the pitching of Muskegon starter Drew Zittel, who scattered three hits, struck out four and walked only two in six innings. Charlie Branch pitched one solid inning in relief.

It was the third straight quality start for the Clippers, and nothing is more important for a winning team than great pitching.

“Drew just kept rolling for six innings, Charlie put up a zero, and when you put seven zeros on the scoreboard you’re going to get a lot of wins,” Fleener said.

Muskegon took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Stony Smith was hit by a pitch, stole second, advanced to third on an error, then scored on another error.

Clippers pitcher Drew Zittel gets some advice during a meeting on the mound.

The Clippers went up 2-0 in the second inning on an RBI double by Donovan Rinehart.

Arbogast’s two-run homer made it 4-0 in the third inning, and his RBI single extended the lead to 5-0 in the sixth.

Sheehan O’Connor hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to make the score 7-0, Arbogast followed with his RBI sacrifice fly, then Passinault got his game-winning hit.