B A 5 E B A L L 50 Baseball Bisons Encounter a Season of Ups and Downs Coach Johnson was heard saying, before the 1983 season began , "This cou ld be the year of the Bison. " Harding was considered to be a strong contender for the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference Baseball T itle. So it wa s no surprise to hear "the year of the Bison" a round the campus . There was good cause for people to believe that thi s year Harding could take it all. The Bi sons had eight returning senio rs and ten returning lettermen. Great t hi ngs were expected from Rich Katchur and Mike Ga ll oway. Katchur had batted an impressive .412 in 1982 and was hopeful that the same cou ld be repeated in 1983. Galloway fini shed the 1982 season with a 6-1 record and many in the AIC picked him to be the best p itcher in the conference for the 1983 baseball season. The Bisons played fo ur exhib ition games as they tuned up fo r the regula r season and were very impressive in winning three of the four games. The scores were as fo ll ows: Harding 7, Garland Community Co ll ege ; Garland Commu"ni ty College 4, Harding 2; Hard ing 8, Nor thern Arkansas Community College 1; and fina lly Harding 13, Northern Arkansas I Community College 2. With three big wins in the exhibition season, more and mo re people began to believe that Hardi ng just might run off with the 1983 AIC Baseball Crown. The ir fi rst opponent was the Lynxcats of Memph is. In the first game the Bisons d idn ' t rea ll y get star ted until the fourth inning when they scored eight runs . They went on to win the fi rs t game 12-3. In the second game the runs were more sp read out. Runs were scored in the fi rst, second , fifth and sixth innings fo r another Bison victory , 4-1. Harding started AIC play against the College of the Ozarks. Harding won the first game 4-2 with all the run s coming in the sixth inning. The Moun tainee rs rallied in the second during the seventh and fina l inning to win the game, 5-4. Spring Break came and with it so did the Bi son 's annual spring baseball trip. They traveled to Louisiana to play Louisiana College. The Bisons played five games and lost al l of them. In two of the games they lost by onl y one run and twice they were beaten by a seventh inning rally. Hard ing returned from Louisiana to ta ke on Arkansas Tech University. The Bisons split with Tech, Harding dropped the first game 1-3 and came back to win the second game 9-8. The season reco rd now stood at 4-7 and 2-2 in the conference. The ir next double-header was against Arkansas State University Indians. The Indians took early leads in both games and the Bisons seemed to lack that explosive power they had had earlier in the season. Harding lost 6-2 and 9-2 . The Bisons traveled next to Little Rock to ta ke on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The UALR Trojans took the fi rs t game 8-5. In the nightcap , Harding started a freshman, Steve Pilkington. Pi lkington threw a no-hitter through five innings, striking out ten. The Bisons won the game 3-1 wi th the help of Todd Hill 's, who hit a three run blast, home run. Harding's next double-header was aga inst conference foe, the University of Arkan sas at Monticello. Playing in front of their fans definitely helped UAM win the first game 5-4. The Bisons gained some revenge by coming back to take the second game 6-1. The University of Cen tral Arkansas trave led from Conway to Searcy looking for a victory. Instead the Bears wen t home with two hard fought victories, 2-1 and 4-2. The Bisons enter tained the Trojans of UALR next at Jerry Moore Field. Ha rd ing committed a tota l of sixteen errors in the two games. They might have been lucky to get a win in the fi rst game but three unearned funs paved the way fo r a Trojan victory , 3-1. In the second game UALR won 7-3. Against Ouachita Baptist University, the Bi sons broke a four game losing streak. They jumped out to a six run lead in the first inning of the firs t game and coasted to a 6-1 win. Harding had to fight for the second win, especially since OBU scored four quick runs in the first inning. Harding sco red one run in the first and third inni ngs and ' then waited unt il the bottom of the seventh inning befo re tying the game up with two ru ns. So afte r seven innings it was Tigers 4, Bisons 4. It was not until the nineth inning before the Bisons could secure the win , 5-4. For the first time in a long while Ha rd ing was on a winn ing streak going into the Sout hern Arkansas Un iversi ty game. Even with home runs by Katchur, Marty Nine- - John J. Rndc/iffl'
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