ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University baseball team earned its third Great American Conference series sweep of the season and sixth overall series win of the year with a pair of victories over Harding University on Saturday at home by scores of 7-3 and 6-4.
The Tigers move to 26-10 overall and 17-7 in GAC games, taking at least a tie for second place in the conference standings heading into the final three series of the regular season. Harding drops to 23-13 overall and 12-12 in GAC games. Ouachita has now won 10 consecutive games over the Bisons, including going 6-0 last season and now 4-0 this year with one more game scheduled between the two squads in the regular season.
Luke House (3-3) was the star of game one on Saturday, turning in his best career outing with just three runs allowed on five hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts in his complete-game, nine-inning victory.
House gave up all three Harding runs in the second inning, and then finished the game by putting seven consecutive zeros on the Harding line of the scoreboard. He threw five perfect innings to close out the game, and six overall including an unblemished third inning.
For the second straight game, the Tigers had to fight from behind, and for the second straight game, the Tigers rallied for four runs in an inning to regain the lead. Down 3-2 in the sixth, the Tigers scored four runs on three hits to take the lead, with all four runs driven in by different Tiger players.
Two of the other Tiger runs in the game came on solo homeruns by
G. Allen and
Jaxon Chaney.
Isaac Nowell got things started with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning.
In the series finale, the Bisons took an early lead with a run in the first inning, but the Tigers answered with three runs in the bottom half of the frame to take the lead. Ouachita held a lead the rest of the game, getting insurance runs from
Dustin Bermudez and
Michael Quinones, each hitting their second homeruns of the weekend.
Teddy Webb (5-1) earned the win for the Tigers, giving up three runs in the first six innings with seven strikeouts.
Dustin Bermudez earned his second save of the weekend and seventh of the season by holding the Tiger lead in the seventh.
After game one of the series on Friday lasted 2:44, both games on Saturday clocked in at less than two hours. Saturday's nine-inning game was 1:58. The seven-inning game was 1:56.
The Tigers take on cross-street rival Henderson State University twice this week in non-conference action, facing off against the Reddies in Hot Springs at Majestic Park on Monday and then at HSU's Clyde Berry Field on Tuesday. Both games are set to start at 6 p.m.
