Clippers Stunned in Sudden Death Loss 

Jonathan Timm

Muskegon, MI: Another scary Saturday night for the Muskegon Clippers (1-7) as a 6-6 loss in sudden death (see next paragraph) had the Flag City Sluggers (2-6) celebrating Flag Day in walk-off fashion on June 14th at Historic Marsh Field. 

The Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League sudden death rule is after ten innings, if a winner is not decided, the coin flip winning team will decide whether they want to play the final half inning at the plate or on defense. The hitting team starts with a winning run represented at first, and the defense can win by recording three outs. If the offense scores, the run does not get put towards the score, rather simply earning the hitting team the win.

Upon winning the coin toss, the Clippers elected to play defense. After Will Lafferty advanced to third base upon stealing second a wild throw to center field, Slugger pinch hitter Cameron Baker recorded his first hit of the season to give the Sluggers their second win of the season and first series clincher. 

The Clipper bats came to play, obtaining ten total hits. Four of them came from the swings of Holden Baker. Joe Chrapliwy had his second consecutive multi hit night going 2-2. Additional hits came from Ashton Wong, Taylor Head, Casey Joppie and Casey Barnes. It was a full team effort, as the Clipper utilized all but one position player on their roster

Nathan Masar got the start for the Clippers on the mound and went four innings while recording six strikeouts, three walks and two hits while allowing two earned runs. 

It was a game of answering the call, and the Clippers erased three different Slugger leads through the night. In the bottom of the third trailing 2-0, a two RBI double to right center from Wong tied the game. Two batters later, Baker doubled in the same right center field gap to give the Clippers the lead. Chrapliwy would get thrown out at second to end the inning, but not before driving in Baker on a single to center to make it 4-2. 

After a season high of runs in an inning, the Clips suffered three scoring Sluggers in the top of the fifth to make it 5-4. The second Clipper bell would be answered when Baker found another RBI, a single allowing Barnes to tie the game before the end of the fifth frame.

Connor Kelly came out of the pen for relief work in the sixth inning. After allowing one run in his first frame to make it 6-5 Flag City, he would go three more without any damage. Kelly didn’t issue a single walk while allowing three hits and punching out a quad.

The Clippers needed one run to tie the game and were able to do so with a Joppie single to left in the bottom of the sixth with two outs to score Head.

It was a stalemate the remainder of regulation. The Clippers had an opportunity to get ahead in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and two outs before Aidan Robinson struck out. 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Clippers were quite literally an inch away from walking it off after Baker singled to center and Wong was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second base for out number two, due to a nearly perfect throw from Slugger center fielder Will Lafferty. There would be two more base runners that inning, but Muskegon came up empty handed. 

Lukas Brewer had a chance to earn the win on the mound in the tenth inning and in sudden death. After standing a Slugger at third in the 10th, the bats couldn’t roll the momentum back on the Clippers side.

Game three of this series will take place on Sunday at Historic Marsh Field with a 5:05 first pitch.