SEARCY, Ark. – The No. 24-ranked Southern Arkansas baseball team concluded the non-conference portion of their regular season schedule on Tuesday afternoon as they traveled to Searcy and left after handing Harding a 7-2 loss at Jerry Moore Field.
The Bisons (26-20) jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning on an unearned run against SAU starter
Hunter Mayo. The Muleriders (32-15), however, responded in the top of the second inning with a run of their own on a single by
Byron Reichstein that eventually scored
Carver Rademacher after a pair of Bisons' errors on the play.
A two-out hit up the middle in the fourth for HU's Shane Kinnear pushed the Bisons back on top by a run, but SAU once again responded in the next half inning, this time plating two runs to take a one-run lead of their own, 2-1. Both SAU runs were scored on a double to left field off the bat of
Billy Germaine.
In the top of the sixth,
Chris Quinn added another run to the Mulerider total as he launched a solo homerun out to left field. In the eighth, SAU tacked on another run on balk, scoring Rademacher and making it a 5-2 game.
In the top of the ninth, Germaine put the game out of reach as he collected his third and fourth RBIs of the game with a two-run blast out to left-centerfield.
In terms of pitching, SAU used three arms to get through the mid-week contest at Harding with Mayo getting the start and working four complete innings with five hits allowed, two runs (one earned), no walks, and one strikeout.
Jared Webb came on for Mayo in the fifth and proceeded to pitch the next three innings. Webb would allow two hits and walked three, but he kept the Bisons off the board by registering inning-ending double plays in the sixth and seventh innings.
After pitching the game to the eighth, Webb gave way to
Jared Fielden who made quick work of the Bisons over the final two innings as he raked up four strikeouts to close the door on the game and earn his first save as a Mulerider.
The Muleriders will now prepare for their final conference weekend of the season as they welcome in the Boll Weevils of the University of Arkansas-Monticello. The three-game set is scheduled to begin on Friday, April 24 at 6 p.m. at Walker Stadium at Goodheart Field and then conclude on Saturday, April 25 starting at 2 p.m. Senior Day ceremonies for the nine seniors on the 2015 club will take place on Saturday.
