SEARCY – Southwestern's Rafael Otero hit a two-run home run in the third, and the Bulldogs tacked on four in the fifth in a 6-1 victory over Harding on Friday in the first game of a three-game Great American Conference series at Jerry Moore Field.

The teams will conclude the series Saturday with a noon doubleheader.

The loss dropped Harding to 3-8 overall and evened its GAC record at 2-2. Southwestern snapped a six-game losing streak and moved to 5-6 overall. The Bulldogs won for the first time in GAC play to improve to 1-3.

Otero's third-inning home run was his fifth of the season and came with two outs and scored Jason Nichols, who had singled just ahead of him. Otero has five of Southwestern's 10 home runs this season.

Harding cut the Southwestern lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the third. Connor Kelly led off with a single, went to third on Grant Guest's single and scored on Zach Beasley's sacrifice fly.

Southwestern parlayed three singles and two hit batters to score four runs in the fifth. Danny-David Linahan had a two-out, two-run single to make the score 6-1.

Freshman Austin Allen (2-2) had his first rough outing of the season. He allowed four earned runs on five hits over four innings and was tagged with the loss. Sophomore Matt Sherry pitched around two hits and three walks and did not allow a run in four solid innings of relief.

Southwestern's Brendan Peitsmeyer (2-2) bounced back from two consecutive losses with a strong outing. He earned the win, pitching 7 1/3 innings and allowing nine hits and one earned run. He gave up only one extra-base hit, a Chris Taylor double in the third.

Taylor was 3-for-4, hit first three-hit game of the season and second multi-hit game. Taylor and Guest have both reached base in each of Harding's last eight games. Beasley and Kelly both had two hits.