LINCOLN, Neb. — The television cameras surrounding home plate as the lineup cards were exchanged was the first hint that Tuesday was a big day for Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn.

Unfortunately for Van Horn, his players didn’t seem equally as excited as No. 22 Nebraska defeated the Razorbacks 6-1 in Van Horn’s return to Lincoln.

A crowd of 3, 417 gave Arkansas’ coach a nice cheer when his name was announced before the first pitch at Haymarket Park. Van Horn spent five seasons as the Cornhuskers’ coach, leading them to two College World Series, a Big 12 Conference regularseason championship and three conference tournament titles before leaving to take the Arkansas job after the 2002 season.

There were few reasons to cheer the Razorbacks (12-6 ) once play began. Arkansas committed three errors, hit into four double plays and managed only five hits while losing its third consecutive game. The Razorbacks have dropped five of their past six games.

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Nebraska (15-2 ) extended its winning streak to 14 games, its longest streak since the 2000 team — coached by Van Horn — ran off 15 in a row.

Van Horn was as cordial as he could be while media from Lincoln and Omaha asked about how it felt facing a program he’d made into a big winner during his time at Nebraska. But he admitted to his Arkansas players “kind of being in a lull” Tuesday.

“It would have been a fun day if we would have played better,” Van Horn said. “I think [Nebraska Coach Mike ] Anderson’s kids played a lot harder than us, and that was obvious.”

Anderson was the hitting coach during Van Horn’s tenure at Nebraska and said he was glad to see Cornhuskers fans recognize all that Van Horn has done for their baseball program.

“He’s a special person to this state and should be,” Anderson said. “He did a lot of things for this baseball program, for me and everything else.

“ I loved the way our fans treated him, and the media attention is probably pretty darn deserving.”

The day began on a downer for Arkansas when scheduled starting pitcher Mike Bolsinger was a late scratch. The sophomore right-hander is still trying to recover from a flu bug that kept him sidelined for last weekend’s Georgia series.

Of greater concern is Bolsinger’s sore throwing shoulder that has caused him to be removed from the lineup. It’s not clear how long he could be out.

“We’re short right now,” pitching coach Dave Jorn said of an inexperienced pitching staff.

Freshman Kendall Korbal was throwing a bullpen session already when he received the news that he’d start. The Razorbacks wanted only two innings out of Korbal so he can be available for this weekend’s SEC series at LSU. Korbal allowed three runs in his two innings, with Nick Sullivan’s two-run home run in the second one of the game’s decisive blows.

As was the case on a lost day for the Razorbacks, the home run followed another mistake. A pickoff throw to first was called, but Korbal instead threw a 1-2 fastball that Sullivan crushed into the right-field bullpen for a 3-1 lead.

“We try to put it in play with two strikes so we don’t strike out, but it kind of went inside and I got a good swing on it,” Sullivan said.

Korbal, a coveted recruit from

1 Houston, pitched 3 / 3 scoreless innings of relief Friday to preserve a victory over Georgia, but his failure to catch the pickoff sign Tuesday suggested the freshman is still learning. “It was a lack of concentration, lack of focus, and that’s what we see from a young guy,” Van Horn said. “They’ve got to get over it.” Reliever Sam Murphy, a redshirt freshman from Omaha, kept the Razorbacks close with five strong innings until the Huskers scored three times in the eighth inning. Arkansas’ hitters didn’t provide much help, either. They struggled with runners on base all day, with left fielder Casey Coon hitting into three of the team’s four double plays.

THE WEEK AHEAD TODAY at Nebraska, 1 p. m. THURSDAY off FRIDAY at LSU, 6 p. m. SATURDAY at LSU, 3 p. m. SUNDAY at LSU, 1 p. m. MONDAY off TUESDAY vs. Centenary, 6: 35 p. m.