Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Harding baseball bounced back from a game one loss to Ouachita Baptist to pick up the victory in game two and split a Great American Conference doubleheader Friday at Rab Rogers Field.

Ouachita Baptist won the opener 5-2 with Harding winning game two 7-4. The teams conclude the series Saturday with a single game at 1 p.m.

Harding is now 20-15 overall and 5-10 in the GAC, while Ouachita Baptist is 19-18 overall and 7-7 in conference.

In the opener, Harding junior starter Hayden Shirley (3-3) limited Ouachita Baptist to only two hits over six innings but had bouts of wildness that proved costly.

Shirley walked five straight batters with two outs in the second inning to force in two runs. In all, Shirley walked seven and hit one and allowed three earned runs.

The third run came in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Keegan Ghidotti.

Ouachita Baptist made it 5-0 with two more runs against Harding reliever Cameron Walker in the seventh. With the bases loaded and two outs, Landon Moore's reached on an infield single to score Parker Norris from third. Ghidotti also came around to score on Harding catcher Tyler Stanford's throwing error.

The Bisons battled back with two runs in the bottom of the ninth. Junior Billy Ninemire was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, moved around to third on a double by Matt Calhoun, and scored Anthony Guglielmi's ground out. Kyler Offenbacker pinch ran for Calhoun and scored on a Ryan Modglin single, but the Bisons failed to score any more.

Ouachita Baptist starter Ryan Westover (5-2) did not allow a walk and yielded only three hits over 8 1/3 innings and struck out eight to pick up the win.

After recording only five hits in game one, the Bisons got their bats going in game two with 13 hits.

Harding starter Logan Holthaus (2-2) picked up his first win since the season's first game by allowing only one earned run over six innings.

Trailing 2-1, Harding broke the game open with five runs in the fourth. Modglin had an RBI double and Chase Presley drove in two more with a double in the inning. Harding also got RBI singles from Paul Anzalone and Chris Hardey.

Harding made it 6-2 in the fifth on another run-scoring single by Anzalone, who had his second three-hit game of the season.
Ouachita Baptist scored a run in the sixth and another in the seventh off reliever Josh Spears but got no closer. Tiger starter Davis Ward (3-5) gave up eight hits and six runs (four earned) in 3 1/3 innings.

Calhoun had two hits and scored three times, and Guglielmi and Hardey also had two hits each.