College World Series - Arkansas vs. Virginia, 2 p.m. Saturday

Van Horn keeps UA on course

Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn throws batting practice Thursday, June 4, 2015, during practice at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn throws batting practice Thursday, June 4, 2015, during practice at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- As Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn was nearing his 500th victory with the Razorbacks in late March, the team was scuffling around the .500 mark.

With a perilous run through the SEC looming, it looked more likely that the Razorbacks would be battling just to post a winning record rather than competing to extend their streak of NCAA Tournament appearances to 14 seasons.

Long-shot Hogs

Arkansas is the only team at the College World Series that wasn’t ranked in Baseball America’s preseason Top 25 poll. The Razorbacks also have the highest earned run average of the eight teams in Omaha and the fifth-highest batting average. A look at the NCAA Tournament seedings, preseason rankings, batting averages and ERAs of the teams at the College World Series.

TEAM;SEED;*RANK;BA (RANK);ERA (RANK)

2;LSU;2;2;.316 (4);2.84 (10)

4;Florida;4;6;.299 (22);3.22 (30)

5;Miami;5;9;.311 (6);3.02 (20)

7;TCU;7;7;.289 (63);2.38 (2)

Vanderbilt;—;1;.295 (38);2.96 (17)

Virginia;—;4;.273 (147);3.52 (56)

Cal State Fullerton;—;23;.265 (197);2.84 (8)

Arkansas;—;NR;.289 (60);4.06 (102)

*Baseball America ranking

At that stage, with the Razorbacks at 14-14 following a 2-0 loss against Missouri State on March 31, qualifying for the program's eighth trip to the College World Series seemed like a pipe dream.

"We lost in every which way you could," Van Horn said of the Razorbacks' 2-10 stretch that left their record at 11-12 in mid-March. "We just kept finding ways to lose, but they stuck together and pulled it out."

A series of events fell in the Razorbacks' favor.

An extended hot streak, triggered by center fielder Andrew Benintendi, the SEC player of the year, and an improving pitching staff vaulted the Hogs into the SEC Tournament with seven series victories and one two-game split in their last eight SEC weekends.

A big inning against Oklahoma State and stellar bullpen work helped propel Arkansas through its NCAA regional in Stillwater, Okla., and a fortuitous scheduling conflict gave the Razorbacks home-field advantage against national No. 8 seed Missouri State last weekend in a victorious super regional at Baum Stadium.

Against great odds, the Razorbacks played their way onto college baseball's biggest stage for the fourth time in 13 seasons under Van Horn.

"I think he's done his best job that he ever has," Arkansas assistant coach Tony Vitello said.

"It's one of his best," said Norm DeBriyn, who led Arkansas to four College World Series appearances in an 11-year span during his 33-year tenure. "I can't say it's the best because I don't know exactly what he's experienced in all of them, but it's probably the most satisfying."

Van Horn's first experience at the College World Series as a graduate assistant on DeBriyn's 1985 Arkansas team came in his first season in coaching and it stoked a fire.

"I've talked about '85 a lot," Van Horn said Tuesday. "I started coaching that January in '85. Coach DeBriyn gave me a lot of responsibility right off the bat. I think I was 25 years old.

"I knew about midway through that season that's what I wanted to do as a career was coach college baseball. That's how much I enjoyed that season."

Van Horn said last week the Razorbacks could play free of pressure because they had already survived a season on the brink.

"This team, they overcame a lot of things," Van Horn said. "We finally figured it out and the players responded and they did it."

The Razorback revival was rooted in Van Horn's calm reassurance during the down times.

"He was saying the season can go one of two ways," senior outfielder Joe Serrano said. "It can go where we bounce back and we believe in what we're doing and we have a chance to do something special. Or we can just kind of fold like a lawn chair and let the season go.

"I think it just shows the heart of this team is our resilience. We just fought our way through."

Veteran pitching coach Dave Jorn said the late rush to Omaha has been a blessing.

"I think the Lord's had his hand on this ball club," he said. "He's blessed us tremendously. It's just been real pleasurable to watch these guys reap the rewards for all the hard work in everything that they've gone through."

DeBriyn said he had a sense Van Horn and the staff could rally the team even after it opened 1-5 in the SEC with series losses to LSU and defending CWS champion Vanderbilt, who both will join the Razorbacks at the World Series.

"I'm talking to scouts a lot and they're talking about how good Vandy and LSU are and I'm thinking, 'You know what? We're not that far off,' " DeBriyn said. "Sure enough, as the season went on we just got better, which is a great tribute to everybody.

"I think they've got guys that are gritty, that are competitors, that want to win and they're pulling on the same end of the rope. That goes a long way."

Auburn Coach Sunny Golloway witnessed Van Horn's 500th Arkansas victory in the finale of their three-game series at Auburn, a 6-4 decision that put the Razorbacks over .500 for good at 16-15.

"Dave is very firm with his guys, and yet those guys respect him and play hard for him and there's a lot of care in that clubhouse," Golloway said prior to the SEC Tournament. "You just knew they were going to make a run. This wasn't going to be a year they weren't going to make the NCAA Tournament."

On paper, the Razorbacks shouldn't be in Omaha.

They'll be the only team at the College World Series that wasn't ranked in Baseball America's preseason Top 25. The Razorbacks also will have the worst team ERA in Omaha at 4.06 by more than a half-run per game over their first opponent, Virginia, which has a 3.52 ERA.

None of that seems to matter to Van Horn, who has guided his Arkansas and Nebraska teams to six College World Series appearances in the past 15 years.

"I think the players make the coaches look good," Van Horn said when asked if this was his best coaching job. "I think that we've taken a good approach with this team as a staff as far as how we handle them, how we talk to them."

Junior outfielder Tyler Spoon recalled a conversation Van Horn had with the team when the Hogs were 11-12, their first sub-.500 record through 23 games since 1974.

"It's not like we were playing terrible, we just weren't winning, and he told us just keep playing hard and things are going to go your way," Spoon said. "We just kept playing hard and things started to go our way, and here we are. The coaching staff in general was so good at that, keeping us calm more than anything and not panicking."

Reliever Zach Jackson said Van Horn's faith in the players is perhaps the key reason they have navigated their way to Omaha.

"As a college baseball player, you look to your head coach," Jackson said. "Him keeping faith in you when it's one of the worst starts Arkansas has had in a really long time, it's got to be hard on his part to do that."

Sports on 06/11/2015

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