MUSKEGON – For the first three games of the season, starting pitching was a big part of the success story for the Muskegon Clippers.

That wasn’t the case on Friday, when Muskegon starter Griffin Firestine had a rough second inning, giving up three hits and two runs before leaving the game with a sore arm.

That didn’t spell disaster for the Clippers, however, because the bullpen stepped up when called upon, starting with Jack Decker.

The lefthander from Saginaw Valley State University entered the game without the benefit of warming up in the bullpen and was immediately effective, shutting down the Royal Oak Leprechauns for five innings and allowing the Clippers to pull away for a 9-4 victory at Marsh Field.

Fellow relievers Ben Alderson and Brandon Schauer also performed well down the stretch, helping to preserve the win.

The victory was the fourth in four games for the Clippers, who are off to their best start in years. The Muskegon squad will try to make it five in a row on Saturday night in a home rematch with the Leprechauns at 7 p.m.

“That was definitely the first time I’ve done that,” said Decker about coming in cold with no bullpen preparation. “But my number was called and I had to go out and pitch. I felt really good, that’s all I can say. I was just working around the zone, keeping it low, staying calm and not letting anything get in my head.”

Decker allowed only one hit and two walks with four strikeouts, which left an impression on Clippers manager Logan Fleener.

“Getting 14 hits and nine runs was great, but Jack Decker gave us an opportunity to stay in the game,” Fleener said. “Him coming out of the pen and doing what he did tonight was pretty special.”

The Clippers came into the game on a roll after sweeping their season-opening series against the Jet Box Baseball Club.

But Jet Box committed a ton of errors during that first series, making some wonder if the Clippers were really that good, or if the visitors were just really bad.

The Clippers answered that question against Royal Oak, pounding out 14 hits and playing great defense to beat a new opponent.

Stony Smith had the hottest bat with three hits and four RBIs, Aaron Piasecki had four hits and knocked in one run and Colin Cornwell added two hits.

Defensively the Clippers had a number of impressive plays, including a beautiful relay from right fielder Nick Hawkins to second baseman Piasecki to catcher Jabin Bates to nail a Royal Oak runner at the plate in the seventh inning.

In a league where teammates only know each other a few days before starting the season, strong defense is pretty rare, and a big reason why the Clippers are 4-0.

“The defense has been unquestionably the biggest surprise so far,” Fleener said. “I thought we would have some bats and some good arms, but these guys playing as well as they have defensively has been an absolute blast to watch. They’ve only had five or six days of playing together, but they are playing as a unit.”

Royal Oak jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a home run by Lucas Rick.

The Clippers answered with five runs in the bottom of the first on RBI walks by Donovan Rinehart and Hawkins, a run-scoring single by Piasecki and a two-run single by Smith.

The Leprechauns fought back in the second inning, leading off with a hit batter and three straight singles that led to two runs. That spelled the end of the game for Firestine, who left the field with the athletic trainer with arm discomfort.

Decker entered the game at that point and put down Royal Oak with three straight outs.

Smith hit a two-run single in the bottom of the third to put Muskegon up 7-3. Smith scored on a Leprechaun error in the fifth inning and Aidan Arbogast added an RBI single to make the score 9-3.

Royal Oak scored a run in the seventh, but the visitors couldn’t get any closer.