MUSKEGON – The hopeful fact is that the Muskegon Clippers have not lost two games in a row all season, a pretty remarkable feat.
They dropped five games during their incredible regular season run – which included a league-record 33 wins – and each time bounced back with a victory.
Now they need to keep that impressive rebound streak going, or their great season will be over.
The Clippers opened the 2023 Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League playoffs with a power outage on Thursday, falling 1-0 to the Lima Locos in front of a big crowd at Muskegon’s Marsh Field.
[1]The loss came just days after the Clippers swept the Locos in a pair of doubleheaders last weekend.
The two teams will travel to Lima, Ohio for the second game of the 2-of-3 series on Friday. A Clippers victory would bring the series back to Muskegon on Saturday night for a decisive Game 3. A loss would bring a stunningly quick end to the best season in team history.
“There’s a little more on the line now,” said Clippers manager Logan Fleener, who added that he hasn’t decided on a starting pitcher for Friday’s game. “We’ve got to get it back in gear and get on the bus tomorrow and try to find a way to win one. It’s a tough position we’re in, but I believe in these guys.
“It could well come down to the first three innings. Looking back at the year, when we are good in the first three innings we’ve had a lot of success. When we’re not it gets ugly sometimes.”
The Clippers could never get their bats going against two Lima pitchers – starter Steven Cash and reliever Alex Figueroa – totaling an uncharacteristic 13 strikeouts.
[2]Cash tossed five innings, scattering four hits and one walk with eight strikeouts. Figueroa threw four innings, allowing only one hit while striking out five.
The home team advanced runners to scoring position in the second, third, fifth and ninth innings, but couldn’t manage to get a key hit to get a run across the plate.
The bottom of the ninth inning looked hopeful for the Clippers when Jabin Bates led off with a single to right-center field, then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Brett Stanley.
But Figueroa finished off Muskegon with two straight strikeouts, leaving the big crowd of Clippers fans stunned and quiet.
Bates, Stanley, Brandon Scheurer, Sam Lisiak and Aidan Arbogast each had one hit for the Clippers.
[3]‘It was just not our night,” Fleener said. “When you strike out 13 times it’s hard to win a game. Somebody has to come through and punch one through the infield, and we did a really good job of not doing that all night. The offense we watched for 38 games this season did that, but tonight we went in 0-0 and we didn’t get the job done.”
The lack of offense wasted a great pitching performance by Muskegon starter Jack Decker, who scattered three hits and three walks while striking out nine. Reliever Ben Alderson pitched the ninth for Muskegon without giving up a run.
Lima’s only run came in the top of the fourth inning when Eduarny Martinez walked, advanced to third on Aiden Coffey’s ground-rule double, then scored on a sacrifice fly by Jack Porter.
The Locos got the win despite only managing three hits in the game. 
[4]