Harding Baseball

Harding (8-4) at Henderson State (3-10)

Location: Arkadelphia, Ark.

Time: Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Noon (DH)

Series: Henderson State leads 82-63-1

Coaches: Harding – Dr. Patrick McGaha (242-187, 9th season at Harding); Henderson State – Cody Hooten (69-90-1, 4th season)

Coverage: Live stats available through links on HardingSports.com

Harding plays a pair of non-conference games Tuesday against Henderson State at Rab Rodgers Field in Arkadelphia.

Harding is coming off a 2-games-to-1 series victory over Southern Nazarene in Great American Conference play over the weekend. The Bisons won two of five road conference series last season, including taking two of three at Henderson State.

Harding had a .386 team batting average and .604 slugging percentage in the three-game series against Southern Nazarene. The Bisons scored 37 runs in the series, including 25 in the opener, the most in a game since 1999.

The Bisons are hitting .274 as a team and averaging 7.4 runs per nine innings. Harding is led by senior Matt Calhoun, who is hitting .359 with three home runs and 12 RBI. Calhoun is third in the GAC with a .641 slugging percentage and seventh with a .480 on-base percentage.

Harding's .404 on-base percentage ranks second in the GAC, and the Bisons lead the GAC with a .975 fielding percentage.

Harding's pitching staff has a 3.91 ERA and has limited opponents to a .274 average and .343 on-base percentage. Bison pitchers have walked only 31 batters, the fewest of any team in the GAC.

The Bisons will send sophomore Andrew Fiddler to the mound to start the opener. Fiddler will be making his fourth appearance and third start of the season. He is 1-2 with a 5.84 ERA and has struck out 17 in 12 1/3 innings. Sophomore Jacob Stripling will make his first career start in game two.

Henderson State enters the doubleheader 3-10 overall and 2-3 at home this season. The Reddies are coming off a 2-1 GAC series loss at East Central over the weekend. Henderson State won the middle game of the series 7-6 and lost the other two 12-1 and 6-2.

The Reddies have a .231 team batting average and are scoring 4.00 per nine innings. Lee Richardson, a sophomore from Benton, Ark., leads Henderson State with a .276 average.

Henderson State has a 6.30 team ERA and a .300 opponents' batting average.