FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas baseball team will take the field at Baum Stadium for their season opener three weeks from today with a defined end-game in their sights: Another trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Before the 2019 season commences, the Razorbacks had to reconcile the heartbreaking end, the unsatisfying finish to last year, when an uncaught foul pop and a flat offensive effort led to two losses to Oregon State in the championship series after Arkansas opened 4-0 at the CWS.
"It was tough being that close to winning a national championship," junior pitcher Isaiah Campbell said. "But that year's done. You just learn from it.
"We've just got to get everybody on the right track for this season. It's a new season, a new year. Let's hopefully get back to Omaha and do it again."
Junior center fielder Dominic Fletcher said you have to let the lost championship go.
"You show up in the fall and it's a new year, new faces, new group," Fletcher said. "So you kind of let it go after that and just re-focus on the new year."
The Razorbacks open full-team spring practice today in their 17th season under Coach Dave Van Horn and are scheduled to begin scrimmaging on Saturday.
Van Horn said he hasn't really had a team discussion about the ending in Omaha.
"How I feel about it is the way they're feeling about it," Van Horn said. "It happened. We were so close, you know. ... Like anything else, time will heal to a certain point.
"These guys are young. I see them in there, they're always smiling and bouncing around. I think it'll be something they learn from and they'll talk about forever, but we could really heal it one day if we could win that thing. So that's our goal."
Arkansas (48-21 in 2018) lost a significant portion of its starting pitching and everyday lineup, but sports a strong returning core of hitters and a bullpen led by lefty Matt Cronin.
Campbell is projected to be the opening-day starter, while SEC freshman of the year Heston Kjerstad, infielder Casey Martin and Fletcher lead the pack of returning hitters.
Arkansas had carryover with second-year hitting coach Nate Thompson, but lost pitching coach Wes Johnson, who has been replaced by Matt Hobbs.
The Razorbacks are picked generally around third or fourth in the rugged SEC West and are in the top 25 of all of the preseason polls thus far, ranging from 12th to 25th, including No. 12 in the USA Today Baseball Coaches poll released on Thursday.
"I think there's always high expectations here," Van Horn said. "We talk about it all the time with the players.
"I told our players in a meeting before we went home for the holidays that we would have to earn everything we get and that we wouldn't be ranked in any poll. Well I was wrong there. I just felt like when you lose six position player starters and two out of three weekend starters that there's still a lot to be proved. I still feel that way. I do think we're overranked for what we have returning."
The Razorbacks ripped a school-record 98 home runs a year ago, with six players launching at least nine.
"We have a completely different lineup," Fletcher said. "Last year we had guys up and down the lineup with eight, nine home runs and it was just crazy. But this year I think we have a little more team speed."
Campbell (5-7, 4.26 ERA) is expected to lead off the weekends with plenty of challengers for starting roles behind him. Included in that mix is sophomore Kole Ramage, freshmen Patrick Wicklander and Connor Noland, and junior Kevin Kopps, who is returning from arm surgery. Wicklander is the only left-hander in that group.
Sophomore Caleb Bolden, who would have figured among the potential starters, is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Cronin, who set a school saves record with 14 last year, is likely to remain in the closer role with relief help from a group including Cody Scroggins, Zebulon Vermillion and Jacob Kostyshock.
Kjerstad is expected to make the move to right field from left. He'll be joined by Fletcher and freshman Christian Franklin as likely outfield starters.
Martin will move to shortstop from third base, with junior Jack Kenley projected to start at third. Trevor Ezell and Jacob Nesbit are expected to split time at second base, while Jordan McFarland is the top contender at first base after starting 29 games last year.
The catching position is expected to rotate between senior Zack Plunkett and sophomore Casey Opitz.
"I think we have good players and I think that we'll be good some time during the spring, but I don't know," Van Horn said. "We just work. We just tell them to work."
The Razorbacks open with a three-game set against Eastern Illinois, then travel to Los Angeles the following weekend to return a series against Southern California.
Sports on 01/25/2019