Clippers Comeback Cut Short by Scouts on Sunday

Jonathan Timm

Muskegon, MI: The Muskegon Clippers (5-10) fell short of a comeback in a 7-5 loss to the Xenia Scouts (8-6) at Historic Marsh Field on Sunday, June 22nd.

The Clippers trailed 6-1 after the Scouts put up a four run frame in the top of the fourth inning. The only Clipper run at the points came from a Casey Joppie RBI single.

Caleb Cook started the game for the Scouts and Connor Freeman was the starting pitcher for the Clips. 

Baserunners came easy for the Clippers, having at least two in every inning minus the first and third. The big hits failed to arrive on scene in time, as Muskegon stranded a total of 13 baserunners. 

Xenia was guilty of six errors after capitalizing off the Clipper five on Saturday. Four of the five Clipper runs were unearned. The plate patience got the Clippers eight walks at the plate to go with their seven hits and two hit batters. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Joppie drove in his second and third run of the contest with a two RBI single to cut the deficit to three. 

The fifth and sixth innings were a stalemate for both squads as the relief work was on for the Clipper’s bullpen. Colton Blankstrom got a scoreless inning after replacing Nathan Masar. Reid Leonard went two scoreless innings while striking out three and allowing just one hit. 

Crawling a little closer were the Clippers in the seventh after Jackson Isaacs hit an RBI single to make it a 6-4 game. One inning later it was a single from Connor Kelly that allowed an error to bring across Casey Barnes to make it a solo run deficit. 

Scout’s Troy Lynch snuck a single to the outfield with two outs in the top of the ninth to allow Gus Gandy’s insurance run to finalize the score 7-5. The Clippers ended the game with the winning run at the plate.

Coming off of two straight losses, the Clippers will look to redeem themselves in a GLSCL championship series rematch on Tuesday at Marsh Field against the Hamilton Joes with a 6:35 first pitch.