ADA – The East Central University baseball team will head to the state of Arkansas for the final time in the 2017 regular-season to face Harding, April 7-8 in a three-game Great American Conference series.  A single game is set for 3 p.m., Friday, April 7 and a double-header Saturday, April 8 at noon.

The Tigers head into the final month of the season with a 9-20 overall record and an 8-13 mark in the league.  ECU is currently tied with Harding and Ouachita for eighth in the league standings, with the top eight making the first round of the 2017 GAC Championship Tournament.

The Tigers suffered their first sweep of the year last weekend, falling in all three games to Arkansas Tech.  Despite the losses, ECU hit .313 as a team, with four players hitting over .400 in the series.  Senior JT Stevenson led the charge with a .600 average, six hits, two runs and two RBIs.

Harding comes into the weekend with a 12-21 overall record and an 8-13 mark in the league after going 0-3 last weekend against Southeastern and earning a win over Lane College Tuesday.

As a team, the Bisons are hitting .243 and allowing a .295 mark on the season.  Grant Guest is the top producer for Harding with a .322 average, 37 hits, 17 runs and 11 RBIs.

Harding has a 13 member pitching staff, with six seeing over 20 innings of work.  Austin Allen and Reed Roberts have both seen the most action, with 49.0 innings each.  Allen has allowed 59 hits and 27 runs and struck out 28, while Roberts has 40 Ks and allowed 54 hits and 34 runs.

Since 1999, the Tigers and the Bisons have played on 31 previous occasions, with ECU trailing 12-19 overall, 6-8 when playing as GAC opponents and 5-13 on the road.  Last year the series was played in Ada, with the Tigers going 2-1.  However, the last time the teams met in Searcy, ECU won one of the three games in the series.

In the 2016 series, senior Kodiak O'Ravez helped the Tigers to a .309 batting average, hitting .455, with five hits, four runs and two RBIs.  Senior Kaleb Matthews added five hits, four runs and five RBIs. 

Junior Brandon Dusenberry and junior Carson Childers both picked up wins on the mound.  Dusenberry threw a complete nine-inning game, with three Ks and five hits and three runs allowed.