SEARCY — The Arkansas Tech baseball team played its first mid-week game of the season on Tuesday night and took on Harding on the road in non-conference action. The Wonder Boys would fall to the Bisons by a score of 10-5.
Harding got out to an early 1-0 lead through one and then extended that advantage to 6-0 with a five-run third. The Wonder Boys began to get their offense going some in the top of the fourth as they scored a pair of runs. Both of those runs scored with two outs.
Simon Murray was the one who extended the inning after two quick outs as he was hit-by-a-pitch. Cole Dawson then followed that with a solid single up the middle for the Wonder Boys' first hit of the game. Both Murray and Dawson then scored on a Harding fielding error at third in the Kirby Jenkins at-bat.
After holding the Bisons scoreless in the bottom of the fourth, the Wonder Boys scored two more runs in the top of the fifth to get within a pair of runs of the Harding lead. Another hit-by-pitch marked the start of the rally as this time it was Luke Ray who drew the bean ball with one out in the inning. Sawyer Duddleston then doubled down the left field line to advance Ray to third. A RBI groundout from Tyler Sardelli followed to score Ray, while Duddleston scored on a RBI single from Christian Olea.
The Wonder Boys once more held the Bisons scoreless in their half of the inning, but were unable to get any closer to the Harding lead as the Bisons scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth to go back up by four, 8-4.
Tech would score their final run of the game in the top of the seventh, but another two-run inning followed in the bottom half to bring the score to its final of 10-5.
The Wonder Boys will now prepare for a home series this weekend against Southern Arkansas. The three-game set is scheduled to start with a single game on Friday night starting at 6 p.m.
