SEARCY – The Harding baseball team will face its toughest challenge of the season Wednesday when it hosts Delta State, the No. 1-ranked team in Division II, at Jerry Moore Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Harding enters the game 7-2 overall and coming off a Great American Conference series victory over Southern Nazarene last Saturday and Sunday in Searcy. The Bisons won the first two games of the series before dropping Sunday's finale.

Harding has two hitters at or above the .400 mark early in the season. Senior shortstop Gabe Fyock has the team's best average at .407 with seven runs, three doubles and two RBI. Fyock has been especially good against right-handed pitching, boasting a .500 average early in the season.

Junior Jeremy Bohnett has a .400 average and carries a team-best seven-game hitting streak into the contest. He leads the team with five multi-hit games.

The Bisons have been very good early in games thus far. Harding has outscored its opponents 28-3 in the first three innings.

Harding will send freshman Collin Campbell to the mound for his second start of the season. Campbell started last Tuesday against Ouachita Baptist and went 3.0 innings, allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts.

Delta State is unbeaten in its first 10 games and plays at Arkansas-Monticello on Tuesday. The Statesmen open Gulf South Conference play this weekend against West Florida.

The road games against Arkansas-Monticello and Harding will be Delta State's first two of the season. The Statesmen have outscored their opponents at home 100-29, have a .367 team batting average, and a 2.51 team ERA.

Harding will be playing its eighth game against the No. 1-ranked team in Division II on Wednesday. Each of the previous seven have also come against a top-ranked Delta State team. In 2002, the Statesmen swept the Bisons in a three-game series in Cleveland, Miss. Harding won game three of a four-game series in Searcy in 2003.

Live audio, video and statistics will be available on HardingSports.com.