SEARCY – Junior Chris Taylor hit a seventh-inning grand slam and freshman Austin Allenpitched eight strong innings to lead Harding to a 5-2 victory over East Central in the teams’ Great American Conference series opener Friday at Jerry Moore Field.

The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday at noon to conclude the series.

Harding improved to 13-21 with the victory, moving to 9-13 in the GAC. East Central, who entered the series tied with Harding for seventh place in the conference standings, dropped to 9-21 overall and 8-14 in the GAC.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and the game tied 1-1, East Central starter Dylan Sanchez (1-9) walked Harding’s Ben Brauss on a 3-2 pitch. Grant Guest followed that with a seeing-eye single up the middle that sent Brauss around to third.

East Central replaced Sanchez with reliever Sheae Edmonds, who walked Luke Van Dover on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. With the count 2-2, Taylor crushed an inside pitch off the scoreboard in left field for Harding’s first grand slam of the season and Taylor’s second home run.

Allen (5-4) held East Central to only one hit through the first five innings before giving up a run in the sixth on an RBI double to left by Kaleb Matthews, the only East Central player with two hits in the game.

Matthews’ second hit, a triple in the eighth, drove in East Central’s second run and cut Harding’s lead to three runs. Allen retired the last hitter of the eighth on a ground out to end the East Central threat.

Junior Mason Faulkner retired East Central in order in the ninth for his fifth save.

Allen yielded only six hits, walked none and struck out seven, tying a season high.

Sanchez gave up six hits and three earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out none.

Taylor reached base in all four plate appearances. He walked in the first and third innings and lined a double down the third-base line to lead off the sixth.

Harding’s first run came in the first inning. Brauss led off the game with a double and scored Luke Van Dover‘s single to center.

Guest, Van Dover and Taylor each had two hits for Harding.

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SEARCY – Some non-conference midweek games feel more important in a college baseball season than others. Wednesday’s game was one of those for Harding.

Frustrated after a Great American Conference loss in game three of its series against Southern Nazarene on Sunday, Harding used a three-run eighth inning to come from behind and defeat Arkansas Tech 5-4 on Wednesday. The win came ahead of a three-game GAC series with Southeastern Oklahoma that begins Friday in Durant. With five GAC series remaining, Harding enters the weekend in sixth place and Southeastern 10th. The top eight teams reach the conference tournament.

Harding (11-18) was just 2 for 23 with runners in scoring position in the loss to Southern Nazarene, but trailing 4-2 entering the eighth Wednesday, the Bisons had three hits in that situation in the eighth inning alone.

The inning began with Arkansas Tech reliever Nate Rutherford (0-1) hitting both Ben Brauss and Luke Van Dover. Chris Taylor, who had two hits in the game and extended his hitting streak to six games, ripped a single to left center to score Brauss and cut the Tech lead to 4-3.

Tech (18-13) replaced Rutherford with Branden Bohuslav, one of its top relievers. Bohuslav quickly got two outs, one on a failed sacrifice bunt attempt and the other on a strikeout. He was then replaced by Isaac Hale, who gave up back-to-back hits. Tyler Mohr singled through the left side, scoring Taylor and tying the game, and Hayden Walraven drove in the eventual game-winning run on a single to right that scored pinch runner Brooks Pitaniello.

Tech had the heart of its order up in the top of the ninth. Raiff Beever started the inning and got an out on a long fly ball to right center that Brauss made a diving catch on, sliding across the warning track. Zach Klockowski line a single off the wall in right, and Mason Faulkner came in for Beever. Faulkner’s only hitter was Mark Vaughn, who had three hits, including two doubles in the game. On an 0-2 pitch, Vaughn grounded hard to second baseman Van Dover, who started a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

It was Faulkner’s fourth save. The win went to Nash Thomas (1-2), his first collegiate victory. Thomas entered the game in the sixth with two Tech runners on and the game tied 2-2. Neither run scored that inning, but Tech took the lead with two runs off Thomas in the seventh on Vaughn’s two-run double.

Thomas came back to pitch a scoreless eighth just ahead of Harding’s three-run rally.

Harding, now 9-3 when it scores first, took a 2-0 lead in the fourth on its first hit with runners in scoring position. Myles Humphreys, who had two hits, singled to right to score Van Dover from second. Walraven drove in the second run with a slow infield ground out with the bases loaded.

Sam Alender made his second start of the season and was solid for the Bisons. He pitched five scoreless innings and allowed four hits and three walks while striking out three, lowering his ERA to 3.33.

Taylor’s two-hit game was his team-leading ninth of the season. It was the fifth multi-hit game for Humphreys.

Tech had 13 hits but stranded 10 runners.

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