The Bison baseball team lost a home series against East Central University last weekend in Great American Conference play.
Coming into the series, the 30th-ranked Bisons had won three of their last four home games and were 15-3 at home.
East Central had won only nine games last season but had turned things around this season with a 14-11 overall record before visiting Jerry Moore Field. Head coach Patrick McGaha said that although he believes East Central is a better team than it used to be, the Bisons did not play as they should have.
“ECU is a completely different team than they were last season,” McGaha said. “They are much improved, but we just didn’t take advantage of offensive opportunities when we had them. We didn’t get the timely hits that we needed to win the series.”
While the Bisons rank last in the conference with a .264 batting average, the Tigers rank second in conference with a .304 average. Harding and East Central had previously met 21 times with the Bisons leading the series 12-9.
The doubleheader on Saturday ended in a split. Harding came away with a 1-0 win in game one.
In a battle coming down to the bottom of the ninth, junior Billy Ninemire hit a single to right field, allowing senior Chase Presley, who had walked, to score the winning single run. The winning relief pitcher was sophomore Cameron Walker. Starting pitcher junior Logan Holthaus earned a no decision.
“I feel like I came in and did my job in that situation,” Walker said. “Also, I felt that Logan Holthaus had his best outing of this season and deserved the win, but sometimes that’s just how baseball works.”
Game two saw the Bisons battling from 3-0 and 5-3 deficits. In the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Matt Calhoun tied the game with a two-run homerun. East Central went ahead 6-5 in the seventh inning with a solo homerun. The Bisons put the tying run on base in the bottom of the seventh, but the runner was stranded when the inning ended.
Relief pitcher freshman Andrew Fiddler gave up only one hit (a homerun) and took the loss. Juniors Kyle Atkins and Jeremy Bohnett and sophomore Chris Hardey each had two hits in the game. McGaha said he recognizes that there are currently problems with batting, but that he believes these issues should be short-lived.
“We are struggling a little at the plate,” McGaha said. “We have some guys that are not performing to their capabilities, and we have some guys injured right now. We have good hitters on this team, so I’m confident the offense will come around soon. I believe our best baseball is still ahead of us. We just have to remain positive and keep working hard.”
The Bisons and Tigers met for game three on Sunday afternoon when East Central defeated Harding 5-2 to take the series. East Central (17-12, 5-3 GAC) took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fifth. Harding (18-8, 3-3 GAC) loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth with no outs but came away with only one run. The Tigers scored two more runs in the ninth inning off of Harding reliever sophomore Bronson Smith. Starting pitcher junior Lucas Waddell took the loss. Atkins and senior Anthony Guglielmi each had two hits.
The game against University of Arkansas at Monticello was rained out on Wednesday. The team will travel to Magnolia for a three-game series against Southern Arkansas University next weekend.
