MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Clippers needed someone to have a good night on Friday, and Brandon Scheurer stepped up big, like he’s done all season.

First the Clippers needed lots of runs to outlast the Michigan Monarchs, who kept fighting back despite a big early deficit.

Scheurer more than came through, hitting a three-run homer in the third inning to give the home team an important boost. He’s now hitting a healthy .308 on the season with 14 RBIs.

Then the Clippers needed help capping off the victory, and again Scheurer delivered, taking the mound in the eighth inning, collecting five straight outs and nailing down a 12-8 win for Muskegon.

Schuerer, who has played every infield position this season besides catcher, maintains a perfect 0.00 earned run average with 20 strikeouts through 10 innings of high-pressure relief pitching.

“He’s been absolutely huge for us this year,” Clippers manager Logan Fleener said about Scheurer. “He’s a good teammate, a good guy, he plays multiple positions on the field, and when we need him to pitch at the end of games he comes through for us.”

Scheurer was particularly thrilled with his three-run homer, the first of his collegiate career. He said fellow Clipper Colin Cornwell, who is also a teammate at Saginaw Valley State University, had been teasing him a bit about putting one over the fence and he was glad to get it done.

“He’s hit several in college, and he was always asking me when I’m going to hit one,” Scheurer said.

The bin win pushed the Clippers (29-5) to within one victory of clinching the Great Lakes Summer League North Division championship. They will play the second-place Lima Locos in a doubleheader on Saturday, then again on Sunday, all at Marsh Field.

One win in those four games – the finale of the regular season – will nail down the division crown and give the Clippers the home field advantage heading into next week’s playoffs. The first round we be played against Lima, no matter how this weekend’s games play out.

Fleener said he wants to win as many games as possible this weekend, to keep the Locos on their heels.

“They are going to come in here hot and heavy, knowing what they need to do, but we want to keep rolling as we go into the playoffs, even if we wrap (the division title) up on Saturday,” Fleener said. “Momentum plays a big part in this game.”

Friday’s game proved to be much more of a struggle than the Clippers anticipated. They came into the contest 9-0 against the Monarchs this season and pounced all over the visitors to take a 6-0 lead after one inning.

They collected their six early runs when Cromwell hit a two-run single, Aidan Arbogast added a one run-single while a second run scored on a throwing error on the same play, then Scheurer hit his three-run blast to right-center field.

The Monarchs got four runs in the top of the third inning on an RBI single and three bases-loaded walks.

Muskegon answered back with three runs in the bottom of the third with RBI hits by Danny Passinault and Aaron Piasecki  and took a 9-4 lead.

The Monarchs still battled, scoring one run in the fourth and three more in the sixth to pull within a run at 9-8.

The Clippers finished the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single Piasecki, a throwing error on the same play that allowed a second run to score, then an RBI single by Cromwell.

The Clippers’ bullpen finally shut down the Monarchs in the final innings of the game, with Ryan Chamberlain tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless ball and Scheurer doing the same in 1 2/3 innings.

Stony Smith had two hits and stole two bases for the Clippers and set a new single-season team record for steals with 23. Piasecki finished with two hits and three RBIs, Schuerer finished with two hits and Passinault knocked in two runs.

The Clippers had a tough night defensively with four errors, but Fleener said he was proud of the way his batters kept the team in the lead.

“No matter what (the Monarchs) did offensively, we got back in the box and continued to fight, and that was absolutely huge,” he said.