Box Score SEARCY, Ark. - The Delta State University Statesmen Baseball team suffered its first defeat of the season Wednesday afternoon, falling to Harding University 12-2.
 
The loss snaps the No.1 Statesmen's (11-1) streak of 11 wins to open the 2013 season.
 
Delta State was unable to recover from a four-run inning from the Bison (8-2) in the bottom of the first inning, that saw starter Travis Northern go two-thirds of an inning. Northern falls to 0-1 on the season with the loss.
 
Sam Kidd and Jami Rachal scored the only runs for the Statesmen in the second and fifth innings off of a hit from Brent Langston and sacrifice fly from Jordan Chovanec, respectively.
 
The Statesmen offense, which averaged 12.7 hits and 10 runs per game coming into the game Wednesday night, struggled to get going as Delta State was limited to the two runs on six hits and stranded seven runners on base.
 
Casey Green pitched 4.1 innings in relief, giving up one unearned run off of one hit and two walks allowed while striking out four batters.
 
Ricky Winters and Taylor Stark gave up seven runs to Harding in the bottom of the seventh to seal the victory for Harding.
 
The Statesmen will return to action this weekend at Ferriss Field, opening up Gulf South Conference play with a three-game series against No. 7 West Florida on Saturday and Sunday.