Harding (10-13) vs. Arkansas-Fort Smith (12-3)
When: Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2 p.m. (DH)
Where: Searcy, Ark.
Series: UAFS leads 3-2
Harding Notes
Harding returns to Searcy on Tuesday in a doubleheader against Arkansas-Fort Smith after playing its previous eight games on the road.
The Bisons won one of their three Great American Conference games over the weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma in Durant. Harding won the second game of the series 15-5.
Junior Harrison Hunter continues to lead the Harding offense. He is hitting .366 with a team-best .500 on-base percentage. Hunter leads the team with 26 hits and has reached base in each of the 21 games he has started this season.
Harding is 6-6 in its 12 road games this season with a .255 team batting average and 6.28 team ERA.
John Chapman leads Harding with a .323 home batting average, going 10-for-31 with five runs and three RBIs. Zac Stewart has 10 hits, five walks and has been hit by pitch five times for a team-best .455 on-base percentage at home. Davis Richardson has a team-high four extra-base hits at home, including one of Harding's two home runs at Jerry Moore Field, and holds a team-best .480 slugging percentage.
Andrew Ralston, a junior right-hander from Memphis, Tennessee, and Reed Roberts, a freshman right-hander from Guthrie, Oklahoma, are the expected starting pitchers for the Bisons in the doubleheader. Ralston is 1-0 with a 6.23 ERA and will be making his fourth start of the season and has a 3.24 ERA in his three previous starts. Roberts, 0-0 with a 5.19 ERA, will be making his first collegiate start. He last worked 1 2-3 innings in relief at Arkansas Tech on Mar. 10.
Ark.-Fort Smith Notes
Arkansas-Fort Smith is 3-3 in six road games this season and has a 12-3 record overall. The Lions won two of three Heartland Conference games over the weekend at Texas A&M International in Laredo, Texas.
Arkansas-Fort Smith has a .325 team batting average and is scoring almost eight runs per game. The Lions have six regulars hitting over .300 with Josh Vanderpool, a junior outfielder from Gravette, Arkansas, leading the team with a .421 average and 22 RBIs. Kasey Cooper, a junior outfielder from Pea Ridge, Arkansas, is hitting .370 with nine extra-base hits, including four of the team's 10 home runs.
The Lions' pitching staff has a 4.97 ERA and has limited opponents to a .268 average. Arkansas-Fort Smith pitchers have 110 strikeouts in 114 innings.
Series
Despite the proximity of the two teams, Harding and Arkansas-Fort Smith have met only five times on the baseball diamond. Three of those meetings have come since 2011. The Bisons won the last meeting 3-2 in 2013.
