Harding Baseball

Harding (12-5, 5-1) at East Central (8-9, 4-5)

Location: Tiger Field, Ada, Okla.

Time: Friday, Mar. 7 at Noon (DH); Saturday, Mar. 8 at Noon

Series: HU leads 16-11

Coaches: Harding – Dr. Patrick McGaha (246-188, 9th season at Harding); East Central – Dino Rosato (64-133, 5th season at ECU)

Coverage: East Central will only be providing live video. There will be no live stats.

Harding will look to retain its lead at the top of the Great American Conference standings Friday and Saturday when it travels to meet East Central in Ada, Okla.

Harding enters the three-game series ranked No. 7 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers' Association Central Region Poll. This marks the first week this season that Harding has appeared in the poll.

The Bisons are coming off a three-game GAC series sweep of Southeastern Oklahoma last weekend in Searcy and have won their last four straight. Harding's pitching staff had a 0.44 ERA last week, allowing only two earned runs in 40 2/3 innings.

Harding is 12-5 overall and 5-1 in conference play and has a one-half game lead in the conference standings over Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello.

The Bisons enter the series ranked fourth in the conference in batting average (.277) and lead the GAC in ERA (2.85) and fielding percentage (.976).

Harding's Matt Calhoun, the current GAC Player of the Week, leads the GAC in batting average (.434) and on-base percentage (.529) and ranks second in slugging percentage (.698). He is also in the top 10 in the conference in hits (8th, 23), home runs (2nd, 3), RBI (6th, 17), total bases (7th, 37), and walks (7th, 12).

Bison senior James Anderson is fifth in the GAC in batting average (.393) and sixth with 24 hits.

Harding will likely continue to use its same rotation of weekend pitchers against East Central. The trio includes sophomore Collin Campbell (3-0, 1.40 ERA), senior Logan Holthaus (2-0, 3.18) and senior Cameron Walker (2-0, 3.60).

Campbell and Holthaus are both in the top 10 in the GAC in ERA. Campbell is second and Holthaus is 10th. Walker is sixth in the conference with 31 strikeouts. Sophomore Andrew Fiddler, who could be used out of the bullpen this weekend, ranks third in the GAC with a .174 opponents' batting average.

East Central has won four of its last five games entering the series and took two of three games at No. 17 ranked Arkansas Tech last weekend in Russellville.

The Tigers are eighth in the GAC in batting average (.261) and average 5.49 runs per nine innings. East Central is eighth in ERA (4.37) and ninth in fielding percentage (.947).

ECU's top hitter is senior Ethan Gold who is eighth in the GAC with a .383 batting average. The Tigers have two of the top 10 in the conference in ERA, including leader Oscar Gomez (1-0, 1.37 ERA). Junior Icezack Flemming is sixth with a 2.25 ERA.

Harding won all three meetings last season in Searcy. The Bisons won 7-6, 4-3, and 11-3.