OMAHA, Neb. -- Teams at the College World Series have given a new meaning to the phrase "Road to Omaha."
Arkansas, Notre Dame, Ole Miss and Oklahoma have played all of their postseason games away from their home ballparks, and combined to knock out eight of the national seeds that have been eliminated. Texas and Auburn also advanced to Omaha with victories in road super regionals.
Only Stanford and Texas A&M -- the No. 2 and No. 5 overall seeds in this year's tournament -- are here after playing home games in the regional and super regional rounds. That is the fewest number of top-eight national seeds to reach Omaha since two in 2014.
Five top-eight seeds made the past two College World Series in 2019 and 2021.
No team in Omaha has had more recent road time than Arkansas, which has not played a home game since May 15 against Vanderbilt. Friday was the Razorbacks' second day in Omaha and 23rd away from Fayetteville in the past 30 days.
Arkansas' team spent 10 days in Alabama from May 18-27 for games on the Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa and at the SEC Tournament in Hoover. The Razorbacks also spent parts of five days in Stillwater, Okla., for a regional and in Chapel Hill, N.C., for a super regional.
Third baseman Cayden Wallace called the recent time away from Arkansas key for team chemistry.
"We get to spend a lot of time on buses and going to eat together and practicing and working out together on the road," Wallace said. "It's definitely something special. You get it at home, too, but you really get it on the road. I think it's definitely something that has brought our chemistry together toward the end of the year, too."
Team members have made an effort to spend more time together in recent weeks. There have been golf and miniature golf outings, a team viewing of "Top Gun: Maverick" in Stillwater the night before the first game of the regional, and a team meal at Mexico Viejo in Fayetteville before the team flew to North Carolina for the super regional.
"I just think trying to find that spot where we can gel together and feel comfortable around each other was definitely a big part of why we're playing so well right now," pitcher Kole Ramage said.
"We've definitely bonded as a team over the last three weeks," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "We are a lot closer now than we've been all year. They just really have each other's back, so to speak. I mean, the support for each other in the dugout, it's been as good as I can ever remember."
Arkansas' 5-1 run in the NCAA postseason followed a 4-8 stretch that ended with two losses at the SEC Tournament.
Pitcher Zebulon Vermillion said the team is playing more loose now than it did in Alabama, where a series loss to the Crimson Tide at the end of the regular season ended the team's chances of winning the SEC West. A chance to host a regional was doused the following week with losses to Alabama and Florida at the SEC Tournament.
"I definitely feel like there was some pressure that some guys felt, or maybe some guys were in a slump or weren't hitting it well," Vermillion said. "And just finally we're like, 'You know what? We're just going to play baseball, we're going to play for the team, not about me.' And a lot of it's changed toward it's a lot of team baseball."
Van Horn was asked if, in retrospect, the rough patch in Alabama was good for the team.
"Maybe a little bit," Van Horn said. "I guess when you look back, I don't think it hurt us, that's for sure. You know, obviously we should have won two more games somewhere along the way there where we could have won the Western Division. But since we didn't win the West, hey, we got to Omaha. I'll take that over winning the West any day."
Van Horn said the team has felt good about each other all season, but, "I think when we struggled a little bit that they backed each other up, pulled together and they flipped the switch."
This is a run that is reminiscent of Arkansas' College World Series trips in 2009 and 2012. In both of those years, the Razorbacks went straight to the SEC Tournament after a season-ending road series, and won regionals and super regionals away from home.
The 2009 Arkansas team won a regional at Oklahoma and a super regional at Florida State, and the 2012 team won a regional at Rice and a super regional at Baylor. Both of those teams reached the national semifinals.
"I think camaraderie and chemistry is big, especially when you get toward the end of the season," Arkansas catcher Michael Turner said. "We mentioned it before -- we're playing for each other now. We've been saying it for a while, it's all about us. We're just focused on the task ahead, for sure."