Clippers top Mud Hens 6-3, split series and delight big Huntington Park crowd

Juan Brito gave Huntington Park its biggest jolt in the seventh, Kody Huff kept adding on, and the Columbus Clippers closed a busy homestand with a 6-3 win over the Toledo Mud Hens before 8,252 fans on Sunday afternoon.

The victory split the six-game series and left both clubs at 17-16, a neat snapshot of how tight the International League had become in the opening weeks. It also fit the shape of the entire homestand: a Sunday crowd, a family-friendly ballpark setting, and a game that rewarded people who stayed tuned in from the first inning to the last.

Columbus did not need one crooked number to win it. The Clippers opened with two men in scoring position and no outs in the first, then settled for a Nolan Jones groundout and a 1-0 lead. After Toledo tied the game at 1-1, Columbus answered in the fifth with Kahlil Watson’s RBI single, Stuart Fairchild’s triple and Huff’s RBI double for a 3-1 cushion. Brito’s solo shot off Drew Sommers in the seventh pushed the lead to 4-1 and gave the home side another loud moment.

Toledo did not go quietly and clawed back to within 4-3, but Columbus finished the way good Triple-A clubs are supposed to finish at home. Huff delivered again with an RBI double in the eighth, and Dayan Frias followed with a single that sent Huff home for the final margin. The Clippers scored in three different frames and used groundouts, singles, a triple, doubles and a homer to build the win, the kind of spread-out production that plays well over a long homestand.

Austin Peterson gave Columbus a useful start, allowing one run over 4.0 innings with two strikeouts before handing the game to the bullpen. Jake Miller picked up the win in relief, and Codi Heuer recorded his third save of the season to seal it.

The crowd was part of the story, not just the backdrop. Columbus had drawn 8,579 on Tuesday, April 28, for a Dime-A-Dog night, then endured Toledo’s 18-5 blowout on Friday, May 1, before Sunday brought the kind of response the Clippers wanted from a promotional homestand. The result showed the formula clearly: keep the ballpark full, keep the game moving, and give the fans enough different ways to cheer.