FAYETTEVILLE — There was no dog pile on the mound or even an abnormal celebration of excitement once Arkansas’ baseball team clinched a spot in the Super Regionals on Sunday night with a 6-0 win over TCU.
It was just business as usual for the Razorbacks (44-17, 20-10), who will host SEC foe Ole Miss (40-25, 16-14) this weekend needing two wins to make a second consecutive trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Such is the culture Dave Van Horn has created at Arkansas and that should continue with Perfect Game top 15 recruiting classes lined up for 2019, 2020 (ranked second nationally) and 2021.
“It’s grown over the last few years,” Van Horn said Sunday night. “I think it was pretty good ten years ago but it’s continued to get better and better. I mean, did you watch the way our players acted when they won the game? It’s like just another game because they know they accomplished something, but they haven’t accomplished what we’re really trying to do.”
Van Horn, who has taken Arkansas to five CWS appearances and Nebraska two others, didn’t have to rally the troops this weekend.
“So, I don’t say anything to them after the game, but we all noticed it,” Van Horn said. “That’s what we want. We didn’t have to talk about it before the regional, and say, ‘Hey, I don’t want you guys celebrating.’ I never said that to those guys.
“They’re happy that they won it and they’re happy they get a day off tomorrow (Monday) but they get a chance to play again for at least one more week together. If it goes well, we get another week or so.”
Bryant native and redshirt senior Trevor Ezell (5-8, 200) spent four years at Southeast Missouri State and Magnolia’s Matt Goodheart (6-1, 180) a year at San Jacinto, Texas, Community College before joining the Razorback roster.
“Yeah, I feel like kids in Arkansas want to come here and we want Arkansas kids to come," Van Horn said. “I say it all the time, we want to get the best players in the state. Every now and then one slips away like Trevor Ezell who decided to put on 35 pounds after his senior year and got big and strong. You know, it happens.
“Matt Goodheart, we knew about him, we didn’t know if he would get a chance to play as a freshman with all those kids returning. We kind of let him head off to JUCO. We told him we’d watch him after one year. We usually don’t take them after one year because the coaches don’t like that. But, we kind of told them this is what we were going to do right when he enrolled. It worked out.”
There are 18 signees in the Razorbacks’ 2019 class that is rated 14th nationally by Perfect Game and one of eight SEC schools in the top 15.
That includes the first six spots with Vanderbilt, LSU, Florida, Ole Miss, Texas A&M and Mississippi State.
Arkansas’ 2020 class has 17 pledges, including seven top 100 players, and is ranked second nationally behind Miami. The Hurricane also has seven Top 100 players, but two more commits to top the list.
The Razorbacks have 10 commits in their 2020 haul, which is ranked ninth nationally.
“…We’ve got a lot of good kids coming in this next year,” Van Horn said. “That 2020 class is really special, a lot of Arkansas kids. That ‘20 class that we have committed, can’t mention any names, but it’s the fan base, it’s expectation and it’s the way our players act.
“We’ve got a pretty good culture going on. Our locker room is great. If there is a problem in there they’ll usually fix it. They get first shot at it and if it doesn’t work we get involved. It’s been good.”