FAYETTEVILLE -- Dave Jorn didn't panic when the Arkansas pitching staff was turning home plate into a turnstile with walks, hits and hit batsmen in March.
He's been around the game too long to panic.
Dave Jorn glance
POSITION Pitching coach
ALMA MATER Southeast Missouri State (1981)
FAMILY Wife: Melinda. Daughters: Molly and Maggie
ARKANSAS TENURE 1983-88;2003-15
PLAYING CAREER College: Bellevillle (Ill.) Junior College 1973-74, Southeast Missouri State 1975-76. Pro: Sarasota (Cardinals) 1976, Gastonia (Cardinals) 1977, St. Petersburg (Cardinals) 1978-79, Arkansas (Cardinals) 1980, Springfield (Cardinals) 1981.
COACHING CAREER Wallace (Ala.) Junior College 1982, Arkansas 1983-88, Yankees minor league system 1989-1992, Mets minor league system 1993-1997, Diamondbacks minor league system 1998-2000, Staten Island (Yankees) head coach 2001, Yankees scout 2001-02, Arkansas 2003-15
NOTEWORTHY Part of six College World Series teams at Arkansas in 19 seasons. … Guided the Arkansas pitching staff to four of the school’s top 10 lowest ERAs over the past four seasons. … The 2013 staff led the nation with a 1.89 ERA, the first school with a sub-2.00 ERA since 1992 and the lowest in college baseball since Connecticut’s 1.71 mark in 1976. … Coached seven pitchers on the 2013 team who were drafted. … Had three players drafted in the first 16 rounds last season.
"I'm pretty consistent with the way I go about things," said Jorn, who is in his 19th season as Arkansas' pitching coach. "I try to make it as simple as possible. I'm pretty hard-nosed about it."
Junior right-hander Trey Killian agreed.
"He's hard on us, he expects a lot, and he's the kind of guy who's not going to babysit you," Killian said. "He's going to tell you what you need to do, and if you do it the results are going to show."
The low point of Arkansas' season was probably losses to Loyola Marymount (9-0) and Gonzaga (6-2 and 15-5) in a span of four days in early March. The mid-week starters and bullpen were chaos outside of closer Zach Jackson, who had his own spot of trouble with a four-run ninth inning at Vanderbilt three days after the 10-run rout by Gonzaga.
Jorn's message to the pitching staff was to stay the course.
"I think it's just that we found out who needs to be pitching where, and after we figured that out it kind of started turning around for us," said Jackson, who saved Arkansas' final two games at the NCAA regional in Stillwater, Okla., and closed out a 3-2 victory in the super regional finale against No. 8 national seed Missouri State on Sunday at Baum Stadium.
"I can't say enough about Coach Jorn, honestly," said senior Jackson Lowery, who has had a more prominent role the past couple of weeks. "He's not just one of the best coaches I've ever had, he's one of the best people I know. He is incredible. A lot of credit needs to go to Coach Jorn definitely for our success."
Jorn was in charge of college baseball's ERA champion in 2013 with a loaded pitching staff. This year, he's coaxed a thin roster of arms into the College World Series.
"A lot of it has to do with Coach Jorn sprinkling that Coach Jorn dust on the pitchers," assistant coach Tony Vitello said. "Jorny's worked his magic, so whoever's out on that mound our guys trust."
There appears to be a correlation between Jorn's presence in the Arkansas dugout and College World Series trips. He was pitching coach and current Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn was a graduate assistant when the Razorbacks made it to Omaha in 1985. The Razorbacks returned to the series in 1987 and again in 1989 with pitchers Jorn had worked with through the 1988 season.
Van Horn brought him back to Arkansas in 2003 after a 14-year stint in professional baseball, and the Hogs have played their way to the CWS four times in the past 12 years.
"We were going to Omaha every other year, and when Dave Jorn left us we never went back," said Norm DeBriyn, who spent 31 years as Arkansas' head coach before retiring. "Dave Jorn has a knack for coaching pitchers. He's very intuitive. He knows what he sees and the game slows down for him. He doesn't get tied up in the moment."
Jorn said a few Arkansas pitchers were putting pressure on themselves earlier in the year and had to work through finding confidence in their approach.
"You can't force things," he said. "You've got to have some patience, and you've go to go out there and continue to practice and work and get in that bullpen, and then trust what you're able to accomplish down there that it's good enough to happen for you in the ball game.
"I think we just started having a little success and it's just kind of snowballed."
Arkansas' pitching has been a year-long puzzle.
Killian missed the season's first 10 games recovering from tendinitis in his pitching elbow. Early season mainstay Dominic Taccolini was lost for the NCAA Tournament with an undisclosed injury two weeks ago. James Teague, a versatile spot starter and long reliever, was ruled out this week after an MRI revealed a stress reaction in his right elbow. Freshman Keaton McKinney, who ironed out early season issues with consistency and gave Arkansas five victories in six starts down the stretch, hasn't pitched well since a hip muscle injury flared up in his final regular-season start.
All those factors added up to the team's 4.08 ERA entering the College World Series. Despite the setbacks, Arkansas' earned run average in the NCAA Tournament is 3.33.
"This may be the most special one of all," Jorn said. "This team, there really weren't any high expectations. We started the season off not very good. It was a struggle.
"But we've got really good chemistry on this team. We've got some really good leaders, some really good individuals, some character people that are very positive. ... It's just been a pure joy and a pleasure just to be around those kids and watched how they've handled adversity and how they've handled failure and how they've handled success."
It could be they've picked up pointers from Jorn along the way.
"His way seems to be getting the job done for the past however many years he's been here," Killian said. "All our success this year is due to him and the rest of the staff and the camaraderie we've got on the team.
"Coach Jorn has definitely been a heck of a leader for us."
Sports on 06/12/2015