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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State baseball travels to Searcy, Arkansas, to take on the Harding Bisons in a battle between the current four and five seeds in the conference rankings as HU holds a one-game lead on the Reddies.
With the top four seeds hosting a first-round GAC Tournament series in just over a month, this weekend's contests will have postseason implications surrounding every pitch. Game one of Saturday's doubleheader is set to begin at 2 p.m. with the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m.
REDDIES REPORT (19-12, 10-8 GAC)
Henderson St. claimed its second Top-20 midweek victory of the season after defeating No. 20 Arkansas Tech at Clyde Berry Field this past Tuesday, 14-6. The Reddies trailed 5-2 after two and a half innings before rattling off 12 runs to Tech's one for the eight-run victory. The win improved HSU's home record on the season to 15-4.
Jacob Carroll saw his best game in an HSU uniform, recording two home runs on back-to-back plate appearances in the seventh and eighth inning to secure the victory. Carroll finished his evening with a pair of hits for four RBIs and two runs scored.
Luke Rice went 3-for-5 at the dish with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Rice is leading the team with a .430 batting average and is now second on the squad with 43 hits. The University of Arkansas-Rich Mountain transfer is flirting with a Top-10 all-time batting average for a single season if he can keep up this pace. Of the current Top-10 season-long averages in program history, only one player has more than 130 at-bats. Rice already has 100 at-bats with 19 regular season games remaining.
As a team, Henderson is hitting .306 with eight guys batting .310 or better and four at .338 or better. On the mound, pitching coach
Eric Sandoze's group is carrying a team-ERA of 4.99 with starting pitcher
Ryan Galvan holding a 3.50 ERA.
Henry Coppens has seen the most work out of the bullpen, making 11 appearances in relief for a 1.59 ERA across 17 innings of work.
Harding took the last meeting between the two teams, but prior to that, HSU had won five consecutive meetings. Since joining the GAC in 2012, the red and gray are 12-7 at Jerry Moore Field and are 107-71-1 in the all-time series. Head coach
Cody Hooten needs one more GAC win to reach 200 career conference victories in his 13 years at the helm of the program.
SCOUTING HARDING (21-8, 11-7 GAC)
Harding is off to its best conference start since 2015 at 11-7 in the league. Most recently, the Bisons swept Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Oklahoma, by a combined score of 29-12. This weekend will only be HU's 10th, 11th and 12th road games of the season, where they are 5-4.
The Bisons boast similar bats to Henderson, hitting .305 as a team. Different than HSU, however, is Harding's five batters who are hitting .300 or better compared to Henderson's eight. Coulton Doyle performs the role of
Luke Rice for the Reddies as Doyle is hitting a team-best .394 with eight home runs while carrying a .713 slugging percentage.
With a team-ERA of 4.18, Dylan Penick, in 11 relief appearances, has an ERA of 1.89 with batters hitting .138 against him. Will Roguske and Maddox Long have each started eight games with a 2.77 and 6.09 ERA though 39 and 44.1 innings of work, respectively. While Roguske's ERA mark is second in the GAC among starting pitchers, Long leads the team with 47 strikeouts.
