FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas senior shortstop Michael Bernal has a simple explanation for the Razorbacks' positive approach while enduring an eight-game SEC losing streak in which they haven't led for even one inning.
"Keep playing," Bernal said. "It's baseball. That's all we've done our whole lives. That's the reason we came to this university, is to play.
"I know we go to school and everything, but we love the game. For a lot of us, this is our life. We love it."
The Razorbacks don't love losing and they aren't used to it.
Dave Van Horn has a 545-310 record in his 14th season as Arkansas' coach and a 1,130-550 overall record in 27 seasons at the junior college and NCAA Division I and II levels. He won a national championship at Central Missouri and has a streak of 17 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances at Nebraska and Arkansas with six College World Series teams.
The Razorbacks (21-15, 4-11 SEC) had the look of an NCAA Tournament team when they started 8-0 -- including victories over Rice, Houston and Texas Tech at a tournament in Houston -- and were ranked in the top 20 of five national polls.
Since that hot start, Arkansas is 13-15, including 11-8 at Baum Stadium. Florida, ranked No. 2 in the USA Today coaches' poll, swept the Razorbacks at home last weekend, winning 12-8, 9-2 and 8-2.
"Obviously, it's not fun," Van Horn said. "You go home and you think and you try to figure out what can you do to change it or what can we do with that pitching staff or the batting order.
"A lot of things run through your head, but really, the main thing that I'm doing is trying to be positive with them. You talk about some of the things that don't go well, but you also have to point out the things they're doing well."
The Razorbacks' only victories their past 10 games were against Memphis 12-4 and Louisiana-Monroe 3-1. The Tigers (13-23) and Warhawks (15-21) were the last teams on the schedule with losing records.
Arkansas' remaining games are against teams with a combined 197-84 record, starting with Creighton (25-7, 5-1 Big East) at 6 tonight at Baum Stadium.
The second half of the Razorbacks' SEC schedule consists of series against Kentucky, No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 7 LSU, Alabama and No. 11 Mississippi State. They play home-and-home games with No. 19 Missouri State and a home game against Oklahoma State, which beat Arkansas 5-4 in Stillwater, Okla., earlier this season.
"There are no easy games the rest of the year where you know when you get to the park you're probably going to win," Van Horn said. "You look at our schedule, every one of those games we're going to have to play really well to win."
How the Razorbacks handle the competition figures to shape the roster for next season.
"It gives you a chance to see if guys are at a certain level yet or if they're going to be able to help us in the future or if we need to go out and continue to bring in guys that we think can," Van Horn said. "It's a big challenge for everybody.
"It's a challenge for me and the other coaches every day when we walk out of here and we don't win. We need to win ballgames to keep everyone happy.
"If we don't win, a lot of people aren't happy, but sometimes the process is you're going to get beat before you win. Right now we're going through that."
Arkansas junior pitcher Zach Jackson said the Razorbacks remain confident they can turn their season around despite the remaining schedule.
"We've played with those teams," Jackson said of Arkansas' past success. "We've shown we're just as good.
"The numbers right now don't show it, but it's exciting for us. You come to this league to play those kind of teams every week. You want to play the best and see if you can match up against them.
"As bad as we're slumping right now, I don't want to play somebody that we're going breeze by. I want to play somebody that shows we're coming back, that we're playing how we can again."
Bernal said there's no panic among the players despite the mounting losses.
"Nobody's losing their minds over it," he said. "It's frustrating and encouraging us to work even harder.
"It's definitely bringing us closer together, because we're all we've got right now."
Van Horn said whatever happens, the coaching staff won't lose the players.
"If I sense that, I'll do something about it, but we don't feel that way at all," he said. "We've had meetings with these guys, talked with them.
"We're not dogging them. We're just working, getting better. If we win, we win. If we don't, we don't.
"It's about the process and sometimes the process, it is what it is and the result's not what you want. We have to ride it out until we get there and it might be next year. It might be the year after."
Van Horn said the coaches are talking to the players about finishing strong and getting better for next season.
"You may see me playing some of the younger guys a little bit more because they deserve it," Van Horn said. "Not because we've checked it in, but because some of the guys swinging the bat pretty good are young and it might be time to get them some more time, see if we can turn this thing around a little bit."
Sports on 04/19/2016