ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University baseball team completed a 5-0 season sweep over Harding on Tuesday at home with a pair of non-conference wins over the Bisons by scores of 5-3 and 5-1.
The Tigers (29-18) swept Harding (28-17) in a three-game GAC series earlier this season in Searcy.
In Tuesday's first game, Harding kept Ouachita out of scoring position in the first four innings, and then pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth to preserve a 1-0 lead. However, the Tigers fought back in the sixth, sending 11 batters to the plate and pushing across five runs in the rally.
The go-ahead hit was a bases-clearing double by
Tucker Anderson.
Pierce Mitchum also had an RBI base hit in the rally. The other run came across on a Harding wild pitch.
Jacob Bowman (1-0) earned his first career win, keeping the Bisons scoreless on just one hit in the fifth and sixth innings.
Cooper Timmons came in for the seventh in his fourth relief appearance of the season, and earned his first save of the year, giving up just one walk in the inning, but facing only the minimum number of batters with the help of the Tiger defense on a double play.
In the second game,
Hunter Gautreaux (2-5) threw a gem. He gave up one run on two doubles in the first inning, but then allowed the Bisons to reach scoring position only once more throughout the remainder of the game. From the end of the second to the middle of the seventh, he retired 14 straight Harding batters. Gautreaux ended the game with one run allowed on just three hits with 11 strikeouts and no walks. He faced just three batters over the minimum in the complete-game victory.
Offensively, the Tigers scored one in the first on an RBI single by
Wyatt Core, and then finalized the scoring on a grand-slam homerun by
Jud Arrington in the fifth, his first homerun of the season.
Tuesday's wins capped the home portion of the schedule for the Tigers, who went 19-7 at the friendly confines of Rab Rodgers Field this season. The regular season comes to a close this weekend across the street in a three-game GAC series against rival Henderson State with second place in the league at stake. The Tigers need to win all three games to earn the No. 2 seed in the GAC tournament, which is set for May 7-10 in Hot Springs.
