SEARCY – Harding baseball split a pair of one-run games with Missouri Western on Saturday at Jerry Moore Field. The Bisons won the opener 5-4 and lost 2-1 in game two.
The two teams conclude the three-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.
Harding junior Alan Copeland doubled with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning and scored the game-winning run on Shane Kinnear's walk-off single to give the Bisons a 5-4 victory in game one.
Copeland was 2-for-5 in the opener.
After Missouri Western took a 1-0 lead with an unearned run in the second, Harding (3-1) responded with a four-run third inning.
Zac Stewart hit a two-run double with the bases loaded and later scored from third on a wild pitch. Jaxon Mohr also had an RBI single in the inning.
Missouri Western (3-3) scored the first earned run against Harding pitching this season in the sixth inning, a solo home run by David Glaude. Bison pitchers had held opponents without an earned run for the first 22 innings of the season.
Missouri Western took advantage of a Harding error with two outs and the bases loaded to score two runs and tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the eighth.
Junior Andrew Fiddler pitched 5.0 innings and allowed only four hits and one earned run. He walked two and struck out six. Junior Hunter Payne pitched 4.0 innings of relief and did not allow an earned run, walking one and striking out three. Stewart (1-0) came in for Harding in the top of the 10th and earned the win in relief.
Matt Russell (0-1) gave up the game-winning hit and took the loss for Missouri Western.
Mitch Thorman hit a two-run home run to right field in the top of the sixth inning to erase a 1-0 Harding lead in game two.
The home run came off Harding starter Jacob Stripling (1-1), and they were the only two runs allowed by the junior right-hander. Stripling went 5 2-3 innings and struck out two in the loss.
John Chapman accounted for Harding's run in the fourth. He singled to lead off the inning and came around to score on Stewart's ground ball.
Missouri Western reliever Richard Peoples (1-0) earned the win with 3 2-3 scoreless innings.
