A rescheduling due to rain moved the baseball team’s home series against Southern Nazarene University to Bethany, Oklahoma on Sunday and Monday, where the Bisons dropped two of three games to the Crimson Storm.
The Bisons defeated SNU 3-1 on Sunday, March 14, but SNU won both games on Monday, March 15, 10-9 and 7-6 to take the series.
Sunday’s win was head coach Patrick McGaha’s 300th as the head baseball coach for Harding.
“It’s very gratifying to be able to come back to my alma mater and coach that big win as a Bison,” McGaha said. “We’ve had a lot of good players come through this program who played hard to help us get those wins.”
Senior infielder Noah Chandler said Sunday’s game made the win especially rewarding.
“It’s a humbling experience to play for a man with 300 wins,” Chandler said. “Coach McGaha has been a catalyst for success in the Harding baseball program. All of us players who have played for him owe him a great deal of respect.”
Chandler had four hits in Sunday’s game, the second four-hit game of his career.
Neither team scored until the fifth inning, when Harding took the lead by one. After SNU tied the game during the sixth inning, Chandler hit a single and scored his fifth RBI of the season. Sophomore infielder Grant Guest tacked on another run in the ninth to seal the victory.
McGaha commended senior pitcher Andrew Fiddler on his performance in the win.
“We had an outstanding performance from Fiddler,” McGaha said. “He only allowed one run in eight innings and played defense very well.”
The Bisons jumped out to a seven-run lead in the first game of the doubleheader on Monday. Freshman Blake Coward blasted a three-run homerun in the first inning, and senior outfielder Zac Stewart and senior catcher Davis Richardson scored two runs each with homeruns during the second.
Harding scored another run in the sixth inning, but SNU bounced back with four runs. SNU tied the game in the ninth inning with two homeruns, a three-run and a single, sending the game into extra innings.
Coward hit a single in the 12th inning, putting the Bisons back in the lead, but SNU tied the game again after a hit in the bottom of the inning. SNU won the game after a homerun in the 13th inning.
During the second game of the doubleheader, Harding grabbed the early lead with two runs in the fifth inning, but was down 7-2 in the seventh inning. A sacrifice fly and two doubles scored four runs to pull the Bisons within a run, but they stranded a runner on third base and ultimately fell 7-6.
Senior outfielder Harrison Hunter said the team knows it needs to improve on bringing runners home once they get on base.
“We were able to get base runners on in every game,” Hunter said. “Unfortunately we didn’t cash in as much as we would have liked.”
McGaha said he anticipates improvement for the rest of the season.
“We still have seven weekend conference series,” McGaha said. “There’s plenty of time left in the season left to work on some things.”
The Bisons played again on Tuesday against Ouachita Baptist University for the fourth time this year and fell 9-8. Harding committed a season-high four errors in the loss, but were led by Guest who had three hits and three RBI’s in the game.
Harding will return to Jerry Moore Field this afternoon to kick off a three-game series with Southeastern Oklahoma State University at home. The Bisons and the Savage Storm will play one game today at 3 p.m. and a doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday, March 19, at noon and 3 p.m.
