FAYETTEVILLE -- During a conference call last month announcing the College Baseball Showdown at the Texas Rangers' ballpark, all six of the participating head coaches spoke to the importance of recruiting the Dallas area.
"We have a small population in our state so we have to go out and about," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said on the call. "Texas is probably our number one state besides the in-state kids, to be honest with you."
Arkansas' roster includes four Dallas-area players, including projected starting third baseman Jacob Nesbit from Coppell, projected starting left fielder Braydon Webb from McKinney, and one of the team's most experienced relief pitchers, Kole Ramage of Southlake. The Razorbacks have 12 Texans on the roster.
But another strategic recruiting area, Kansas City, has become almost as influential for Arkansas in recent years.
The Razorbacks' opening-day roster could include as many as four starters from Kansas City-area high schools -- center fielder Christian Franklin, second baseman Robert Moore, right-handed pitcher Zebulon Vermillion and first baseman Brady Slavens.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTsC9MZS9OU]
All four players are from Kansas, as is relief pitcher Mark Adamiak, although Franklin played high school baseball in Missouri at Rockhurst. Franklin and Moore were voted by coaches to the preseason All-SEC team, and Franklin and Vermillion are team captains.
Franklin, a third-year sophomore, and Moore, a second-year freshman, were their state's top recruits when they signed with Arkansas. Franklin is projected as a possible first-round MLB Draft pick this year and Moore could be one in 2022.
"Robert could have played anywhere in the country," said Nate Thompson, the Razorbacks' recruiting coordinator and hitting coach. "When you get a guy like Robert Moore, who chose here over anywhere else, it makes other guys go, 'Man, he did that for a reason.' It's becoming more and more of a hotbed."
Moore also had notoriety as the son of Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore.
"We don't care where the players are from, but Kansas City just seems like it is producing more good players all the time," Thompson said. "I think that's a credit to the Royals up there and Dayton Moore, and the impact he's had on baseball up there and getting kids excited about the sport."
Recruiting Kansas City is a no-brainer for the Razorbacks. The greater Kansas City area has a population of more than 2 million and the city's southernmost suburbs are about 215 miles by car from the University of Arkansas campus.
In-state tuition is offered to qualifying students from the area and the UA enrollment office reported a 29% increase in Kansas City-area enrollees in the past 10 years.
"I think that's what's so unique about all this," said Robert Moore, "the fact that it's not far from home and such a great opportunity to get better and learn from a great coaching staff. It's hard to go anywhere else.
"Everyone sleeps on Kansas City."
Van Horn grew up in Grandview, Mo., a suburb south of the city. He is a member of two halls of fame in the area, including for the summer Ban Johnson League.
"Coach Van Horn being from Kansas City probably has a little sway in that," Vermillion said of the Razorbacks' success there. "It's a great location as far as distance. My parents aren't on my back the whole time, but ... I don't have to travel so far to go home."
Arkansas' recruiting prowess in Kansas City began to grow more than a decade ago when one of the area's most prominent players, pitcher Ryne Stanek, committed out of Blue Valley High School in Stillwell, Kan. Stanek turned down pro baseball to play for the Razorbacks for three years that culminated in being named an All-American and selected in the first round of the 2013 draft.
In the years following Stanek's draft selection, Arkansas' recruiting classes began to include players from Kansas City most years. One of those players was Bobby Wernes, an Overland Park, Kan., native who signed with the Razorbacks out of Neosho (Mo.) Community College.
Wernes played two seasons at Arkansas and in 2015 was named to the All-SEC defensive team as a third baseman. He returned to Fayetteville last year and is in his first season as a Razorbacks' volunteer assistant coach.
"Arkansas being one of the closest SEC schools, it's a very attractive offer for Kansas City kids," Wernes said. "To see that pipeline grow has been really cool, and, frankly, necessary for us."
Vermillion, who is scheduled to start the Razorbacks' game against Texas Tech on Saturday night, will be Arkansas' second opening-day pitcher from Kansas City suburbs in the past three seasons. Isaiah Campbell signed with the Razorbacks out of Olathe, Kan., and in 2019 turned in one of the most dominant seasons by an Arkansas starting pitcher.
In 18 starts that year, Campbell had a 12-1 record with a 2.13 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 118 1/3 innings.
"I think they have some really good high school baseball coaches in that area, so you're extracting from good programs that have been coached really well," said Matt Hobbs, Arkansas' pitching coach.
Hobbs and Thompson had experience recruiting Kansas City before they came to Arkansas -- Hobbs as the pitching coach at Missouri from 2011-14 and Thompson as the hitting coach at Missouri State from 2015-17.
The Razorbacks could receive some more notoriety in Kansas City soon after the Royals traded for outfielder Andrew Benintendi, who won the 2015 Golden Spikes Award and Dick Howser Trophy as national player of the year in his final season at Arkansas.
"Having a former Arkansas Razorback Golden Spikes winner playing three and-a-half, four hours right up the road from us...it should help us," Van Horn said. "I'm sure it'll get brought up in the media up there he was a Razorback and maybe that the GM of the Royals' son [Moore] is playing for the Razorbacks now and will be playing for us next year. He's going to be a good pick out of here down the road because he deserves it. It'll probably all tie in."
Benintendi might have indirectly helped give the Razorbacks some exposure in Kansas City already. After he won the Howser Trophy, the Howser family helped arrange a 2017 game between Arkansas and Kansas State at the Royals' Kauffman Stadium, a game the Razorbacks won in extra innings.
Arkansas has committed more than a half-dozen new players from the area since the game was played, including third baseman Kendall Diggs from Olathe and shortstop Jude Putz from Village of Loch Lloyd, Mo., in the 2021 class.
"The next two or three classes down the road we've already got a couple of kids committed in each class," Van Horn said, "and we're working on a couple more."
