SEARCY – Harding baseball lost a pair of close games to No. 5 Arkansas Tech on Saturday in the last series of the Great American Conference regular season at Jerry Moore Field. The Wonder Boys won the opener 6-5 and took game two 2-0.

Despite the losses, Harding (26-22, 16-14) earned the No. 4 seed in the upcoming GAC Tournament in Enid, Okla. Harding will take on No. 3 seed Southern Arkansas on May 3 at 7 p.m.

Arkansas Tech improved to 41-8 overall and 25-5 in conference games, extending their NCAA Division II-best winning streak to 22 straight games. The Wonder Boys will be the No. 1 seed in the tournament and will play Ouachita Baptist at May 3 at noon.

Harding had a 5-2 lead in the opener before Arkansas Tech scored four runs in the fifth off Bison starter Logan Holthaus (5-3) to take the lead for good.

Harding scored two in the first on an RBI double by James Anderson and Noah Chandler's run-scoring ground out to take a 2-1 lead.

The Bisons made it 4-1 on Victor Guerra's two-run double in the fourth. Tech cut the lead to 4-2 with a run in the top of the fourth, but John Chapman walked to lead off the bottom of the inning and later scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-2.

With one out in the fifth, Tech's Patrick Castleberry and Kris Ayers recorded back-to-back singles off Holthaus, who then struck out Zac Johnson for out two. John Lassiter singled to left to load the bases, but it appeared that Harding was out of the inning on the next hitter. Jay Johnson grounded to Chapman at shortstop and beat the throw to first on a hotly disputed call by the base umpire. The play allowed Tech's third run to score, and Harding struggled to get the final out.

Holthaus hit the next two batters forcing in two runs, and reliever Andrew Fiddler walked Sage Boehner with the bases loaded to force across the eventual winning run.

Tech starter Aaron Johnson lasted only three innings and gave up five hits and five earned runs. The Wonder Boy bullpen allowed only three hits and no runs over the final six innings with Randy Vallejo picking up his first of two saves on the day.

Anderson was 3-for-4 for Harding, and Chandler and Guerra had two hits each.

Tech's Mason Reynolds and Vallejo combined on a six-hit shutout in game two.

Boehner hit a two-out solo home run in the third inning to give Tech a 1-0 lead. It was the only run allowed by Harding starter Collin Campbell (8-2), who took the loss despite giving up only five hits over five innings.

Reynolds went six innings and gave up four hits and three walks but struck out six. Vallejo pitched the seventh for his NCAA Division II-leading 17th save.

Tech's second run came on a wild pitch by Harding reliever Bronson Smith in the seventh.

Chapman had two hits, including his sixth double to lead the Harding offense.