MUSKEGON – After decades of coaching baseball at the high school and summer collegiate level, Walt Gawkowski put on a new hat following the 2021 season.

He stepped down as the first manager of the Muskegon Clippers and became the team’s general manager.

Instead of leading the players on the field, he was in charge of recruiting players and putting the roster together.

His first project – assembling the 2022 Clippers – was a learning experience. That team finished 17-21 and tied for last place in the Great Lakes Collegiate Summer League’s North Division.

He had more experience and knowledge as he constructed the 2023 Clippers and worked hard to put a better product on the field.

He hit the jackpot on his second try, to say the least.

The Clippers just completed not only the best regular season in franchise history, but the best in the history of the Great Lakes league. They finished with an amazing 33-5 record and a North Division championship, eight games ahead of the second-place Lima Locos.

Muskegon’s .868 winning percentage was the best in the league history, and the Clippers tied two other teams for the most wins in league history.

Now the Clippers are headed to the playoffs with high hopes of winning their first GLCSL championship. They will host Game 1 of the North Division series against Lima on Wednesday at 7 :05 p.m. at Marsh Field. Game 2 will be in Lima, Ohio on Thursday, and Game 3, if necessary, will be back in Muskegon on Friday night.

The winner of the series will play the winner of the South Division series – the two-time defending league champion Hamilton Joes or the Xenia Scouts – in a best-of-three championship series next week.

Gawkowski said he expected the 2023 Clippers to be pretty good, but never dreamed they would be this dominant.

“There’s no magic or mystery to it,” said Gawkowski, who coached prep baseball for many years at Muskegon Catholic Central, North Muskegon and Mona Shores, and managed the Clippers from 2014-21. “You vet (potential players) the best you can, try to get the best athletes who are also kids of high character, and hope they perform to the level you expect.

“This year everything just fell into place. Honestly, none of it is due to me. Logan (second-year manager Logan Fleener) has done a remarkable job of managing this roster and the kids have been remarkable. This group of players has connected with each other better than any group we’ve ever had before.”

The players that Gawkowski recruited this year have torn through the competition and left their mark in ways that will long be remembered at Marsh Field.

Second baseman Aaron Piasecki, a graduate of Mona Shores High School, won the league batting championship with a .344 average. He was third in the league in RBIs with 26.

Outfielder Colin Cornwell led the league with 35 RBIs and was fourth in the batting race with a .339 average.

Shortstop Stoney Smith was third in the league in stolen bases with 35. Utility player/pitcher Brandon Scheurer (.307) and Smith (.295) both finished in the top 25 in league batting averages.

Several other Clippers also had very strong seasons at the plate, including catcher Jabin Bates (.318 average), outfielder Luke Kerrins (.373 in 17 games), outfielder Danny Passinault (.282 average), infielder Donovan Rinehart (.278 average) and catcher Sam Lisiak (.250 average). All of them played a lot, but none met the required number of plate appearances to finish in the final league batting chart.

As a team, the Clippers led the league in runs (274), hits (327), RBIs (230) and doubles (65).

The team was just as dominant in the pitching department.

Jack Decker led the league in three categories – wins (7) earned run average (1.06) and strikeouts (59). Also among the league pitching leaders were Daniel Gutierrez (6-0, 2.60) and DJ Thompson (2-1, 3.03).

Clipper pitchers as a group allowed the lowest number of earned runs in the league (113), the fewest hits (256) and were second in the league in total strikeouts with 340.

Now the Clippers will try to put the finishing touches on their masterful season with a great playoff run.

“We’re really excited and we’re anxious to get it rolling,” Gawkowski said. “This is what you play for.”

‘Sometimes you just kind of strike gold’

So what did Gawkowski do differently when building this roster, compared to the team he put together in 2022?

He said he starts the scouting and recruiting process in September or October of each year. There is no league draft. Getting players is a matter of making contacts throughout the college baseball world, learning about various players, and researching them as thoroughly as possible before inviting them to join the Clippers.

This year Gawkowski attracted players from at least 20 colleges in various states around the nation, and they came together to form a great unit.

“I think the job was a little more painstaking this time around,” Gawkowski said. “I tried to be a little more careful, and I spent more time on it. I made sure I did my homework, maybe a little more deeply. Sometimes you just kind of strike gold. You never know when you sign them how they are going to perform. Some of it’s just by the grace of God.

“I was pretty confident we would have a more athletic team, confident that they would be able to run and defend and be versatile defensively. One thing that hasn’t worked out is that I thought we would have more guys who could leave the park (home runs), but we made up for that in lots of other ways. I just tried to make sure the kids we had were good kids and versatile and athletic.”

Gawkowski’s job was far from finished when the season began, because the roster has changed significantly through the course of the summer due to injuries and other factors.

Standout pitchers like Thompson, Blake Gedrich and Matt Hoover have all been injured, and only Thompson may be available for some mound work in the playoffs.

Gawkowski plugged those holes by bringing in guys like Andrew Dukesherer, Isaiah Lindsey, Nich Bastian, Ryan Chamberlain and Jack Snow, and the pitching staff just kept mowing opponents down.

Player loss also depleted the batting order. The team lost slugger Braden Benton early in the season, then outfielder Luke Kerrins and infielder Sheehan O’Conner, to name a few. But Gawkowski got creative, bringing in replacements like infielder Brett Stanley, who hit .404 in 12 games, and fellow infielder Griffin Clark.

As Gawkowski put it, “We never had as much player shuffling as this year, especially with the pitching staff. We had to scramble to get some fill-ins for the second half of the year.”

One big asset in player recruitment – whether it’s before or during the season – is Muskegon’s reputation as a really fun spot for summer college baseball, according to Gawkowski.

Game after game, loud and enthusiastic fans pack Marsh Field, giving the players extra incentive to perform well. When they go back to their colleges after each season, they spread the word that the Clippers are the team to join.

“We’ve had a lot of parents and players tell us that they’ve been with teams that don’t market and there are only a handful of fans at the games, then they come here and the atmosphere is so much better,” Gawkowski said.  “When you have 300-500 people watching and cheering you on every night, it makes a big difference. They go back to their colleges and tell others, if you want a fun place to play, go to Muskegon. It’s a blast.”

Regardless of how the playoffs go, the 2023 season has been more than gratifying for Gawkowski and his brother, team owner Pete Gawkowski.

They started the franchise back in 2014, when the team was a member of the Michigan Summer Collegiate League, before switching to the far more competitive Great Lakes league in 2017.

The brothers and many loyal volunteers have spent countless hours over the years improving and maintaining historic Marsh Field, which was in pretty rough shape when the team moved in back in 2014.

They have also lived through some mediocre seasons in the Great Lakes league, with an 18-23 record in 2017, 24-18 in 2018, 22-19 in 2019, 20-21-1 in 2021 and 17-21 in 2022.

But all of their hard work has finally paid off, with a big and still expanding fan base and a terrific season in 2023.

“Of course it is,” Gawkowski said, when asked if it’s a lot of fun watching his team win night after night. “We obviously want to win. There are things, to be honest, that transcend that – the number of people who come to Marsh Field and enjoy a night of baseball with their families, and the parents who are grateful for the experience their kids are having as players. But I will never discount winning. Winning is fun!

“I just think this has been a positive thing for the city, and we love watching people leave the park happy and smiling.”