SEARCY – After having its last three games canceled by rain, Harding's baseball team will look to build on its strong start with three games against Missouri S&T on Saturday and Sunday at Jerry Moore Field. The teams will play a single game Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. and will conclude the series Sunday with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.
Harding opened the season with a doubleheader sweep of Maryville last Saturday in Searcy. The Bisons won the opener 6-3 on a three-run, fifth-inning double by Matt Calhoun and pounded out 20 hits in a 20-2 victory in game two. It was only the second time a Harding team has scored 20 runs in a game at Jerry Moore Field.
Saturday's game will be a landmark in Harding baseball history. It will be the 2,000th game since Harding restarted its intercollegiate baseball program in 1957.
Senior Lucas Waddell is Harding's likely starting pitcher for that game. Waddell started the season-opener and allowed three runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He has 21 career wins, one short of the Harding career record of Matt Walter (2000-03).
Senior Hayden Shirley earned his sixth career win in game two against Maryville and will likely be Harding's starter in Sunday's first game against Missouri S&T. Shirley allowed only three hits and one earned run in four innings in his first start.
Junior Cameron Walker, who has a 9-1 career record, will make his fifth career start and first since his freshman season, in Sunday's second game.
Harding had 23 hits in the doubleheader against Maryville with seven different players recording two or more hits. The Bisons had five doubles, and redshirt freshman Davis Richardson hit a three-run, pinch-hit home run in his first Harding at-bat.
Missouri S&T is a member of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Miners were selected fifth of eight West Division teams in the conference's preseason coaches' poll. Missouri S&T, who will be playing its first games of the season, had a 32-15 record last season, including a 20-10 conference record.
Harding and Missouri S&T have met 13 times with the Bisons holding an 11-2 series lead. The two teams last met in 2011, when Harding swept a three-game series in Searcy.
