BETHANY, Okla. —Garrett Perez and Austin Cooper each went 3-for-5 for Southern Nazarene in a 7-6 loss Friday in the first game of a 3-game series with Harding.
 
Perez scored two runs while Cooper drove in a run for as those two combeind for half of the Crimson Storm's (9-15, 5-11 GAC) hits. SNU's bullpen gave up just one hit in the final three innings as Hugo Kinebuchi, Cole Lee and Austin Cooper all pitched an inning. Lee gave up the only hit and Kinebuchi had a strikeout. Ryan Mills (3-4) took the loss after giving up seven runs on 11 hits in six innings of work. He also struck out three. He had just given up one run on five hits through the first four innings.
 
Harding started the game by pushing one across in the top of the first, but SNU got that one back on a Cooper single to centerfield that scored Perez. The Storm took its first lead in the bottom of the third on a double off the left field wall by Shelby Reese to lead 2-1.
 
The Bisons broke open the game in the top of the fifth with six runs to take a 7-2 lead.  SNU cut the lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth when Jake Vernon blasted his fourth home run of the year. Cole Lee then pushed it to 7-5 when a double to left center before a Harding error made it 7-6. Harding's Mason Faulkner though kept the Storm scoreless the final three innings. SNU put a runner on in each of the final three innings, but couldn't push a run across.