How Arkansas baseball turned an abrupt end to 2021 into a trip to the Men's College World Series this season

OMAHA, Neb. -- One of the last people to leave a home clubhouse is the equipment manager, and the night of June 14, 2021 was a long one for Arkansas' Mark Taylor.

The Razorbacks, the then-No. 1 team in college baseball, had just lost out on a trip to the Men's College World Series after a ninth-inning home run by NC State in the super regionals. With their season ended earlier than planned, Arkansas' players were hugging, crying and lingering for an hour and a half in the clubhouse.

Taylor, needless to say, held off on collecting uniforms.

More than 11,000 people had packed into Baum-Walker Stadium that day in Fayetteville, and some of them had camped out the night before to earn a spot in the left-field berm area called the Hog Pen. But the whole place fell silent as NC State recorded the final out. About the only words anyone remembers were what Arkansas skipper Dave Van Horn told his team after the game.

«We're going to make up for what happened one day,» Van Horn told them, «and I hope it's soon. We're going to go to somebody's field and we're going to celebrate and dogpile on their field.»

One year later, the Razorbacks were celebrating in Chapel Hill after a super regional win over No. 10 North Carolina. On Saturday, they'll play No. 2 Stanford in an opening-round game at the Men's College World Series.

Though Van Horn believes that every Arkansas team is capable of making it to Omaha, the 2022 squad faced long odds. The Razorbacks lost nine players to the MLB draft, including Golden Spikes Award winner Kevin Kopps, who has already advanced to Class AA in the San Diego Padres' system. They took a nosedive in May, going 4-8 and failing to win a game in the SEC tournament in Hoover, Ala. They didn't host a regional