The question was asked just after Arkansas played the last game of the regular season — a 9-3 victory over Florida — to wrap up a 22-8 SEC season and the outright conference crown.
How did the Razorbacks seem to improve all season? Dave Van Horn revealed his simple formula.
“You have to stay healthy,” Van Horn said. “It also helps if you have something to play for and we were playing for a championship the last few weeks.”
The translation: It’s partly good fortune.
Little did Van Horn know that the luck was about to run out as several key players lost their good health at the most inopportune time.
It was the day before when the worm began to turn. Peyton Pallette injured his pitching elbow and left the game after just 21 pitches in a relief appearance against the Gators.
Pallette had started 11 games and his 56 innings ranked third on the team. He was among the team’s most reliable pitchers and no one really filled that void the rest of the way.
Less than one week later, in the first game of the SEC Tournament, there was another big blow. Slugger Brady Slavens, at that point the SEC's RBI leader, severely sprained his right ankle running the bases.
Slavens returned late in the regional series 10 days later, but he was gimpy over the last two weeks. He fanned in seven of his first 10 at bats upon his return. He did give the Hogs a couple of big hits, but he wasn’t the force with runners on base that keyed many rallies during the regular season.
There were other injuries. Caleb Bolden, fifth in innings pitched with 44 and a starter 11 times, was left off the super regional roster with an injury. He was expected to return if the Hogs made it to the College World Series.
Other pitchers missed time. Connor Noland missed nearly two months with a strain in his forearm. Zebulon Vermillion was shut down twice for shoulder tightness.
Then in the super regional, center fielder Christian Franklin missed the opener and did not start in the second game because of strep throat. He was not effective at the plate and continued to struggle to hit after a slow finish to the regular season.
The Hogs got some help off the bench with designated hitter Charlie Welch catching fire. He led the team with a .388 batting average. Slavens was next best at .283.
The Hogs did two things well at the plate: hit homers or take walks. But they did not carry the load in the NCAA Tournament despite setting the school record with 109 homers in 63 games.
Matt Goodheart lost his batting stroke late in the season. He did stroke some line drives in the NCAA Tournament after delivering the big hit in the victory over Vanderbilt ace Kumar Rocker in the SEC Tournament, but many of his line drives were caught. Goodheart’s average slipped to .264 by season’s end.
What happened in the NCAA Tournament was easy to decipher. The Hogs became more aggressive to a fault.
Van Horn thought they went out of the zones to swing at fastballs up in the strike zone in the 6-5 loss to North Carolina State on Saturday.
That came after they feasted on weak pitching in a 21-2 victory Friday. Most knew that the Wolfpack saved their better pitching for the next two days.
The Hogs couldn’t get to NC State freshman Sam Highfill on Saturday despite a steady diet of fastballs. Highfill said he didn’t throw a breaking pitch after Welch blasted a hanging curve for a two-run homer in the second inning.
Van Horn said the Hogs helped Highfill by going after his high fastballs. Highfill said he used the aggressive approach by the Hogs to his advantage, noting that was the scouting report.
And don't discount the quality of the competition in the super regional. NC State is the only team at the College World Series to eliminate two national seeds. The Wolfpack go to Omaha as winners of 28 of their last 35 games.
Some will criticize pitching coach Matt Hobbs for not developing more pitching depth to offset the injuries, but I’m not sure there were enough midweek games to do that.
The Hogs had to play less than a full schedule when Nebraska bailed on a two-game contract because the Big Ten would not allow nonconference games due to covid-19 precautions. Missouri State also canceled a midweek series because of the virus. A game with Grambling State was canceled because of weather.
Had those four games been played, perhaps a few more youngsters like Heston Tole or Gabe Starks would have gotten more innings. For sure, some of those 36 innings would have gone to those two highly regarded newcomers.
The lack of midweek games came on the heels of a year with limited development due to covid-19. Players were sent home in March 2020, didn't come back to campus until July and weren't back with coaches until the fall semester.
As it was, the Hogs still pieced it together on the mound to win 50 games against just 13 losses.
It is a tough way to go out. I’m sure Van Horn took it hard because he hates losing probably more than he enjoys winning.
I recall his story about the way he took the loss in Omaha when the Hogs were one pitch from a national title.
Van Horn stayed in his house for several days, deciding against a chance meeting with fans at his favorite Fayetteville eatery. Finally, he took his wife Karen out to dinner. Soon after sitting down, a fan at a nearby table sent him a drink, then another did the same.
“I was mad,” he said. “I told Karen, 'Don’t they know we lost?' I really didn’t want anything for (finishing second).”
For those fans upset that they aren’t getting to watch their team in Omaha, it’s a bad look, but it’s easy to understand since the Hogs were No. 1 for most of the season.
But it’s not like they were winning by runaway margins. They won lots of tight games — grinding to victory with lots of rallies from down three or more runs. They rarely lost a series finale and won every weekend series until the Wolfpack got them in the super regional.
In the personal view, it was one of the most enjoyable seasons ever. It came after baseball — and about anything else I enjoy — was taken away because of the global pandemic.
Even when the games returned, few could attend. To be treated with that kind of a season after no baseball last spring was out of this world.
I chuckle when the same fans that discredit Hobbs for not having more pitching ready at season’s end say that he should get no credit for the wonderful season by Kevin Kopps.
Both Hobbs and Van Horn will tell you Kopps is a self-made star, but the first thing Kopps says is that he was about to fade off into the sunset last summer when Hobbs convinced him his story at Arkansas still had one more glorious chapter.
It’s like saying Eddie Sutton had nothing to do with the development of Sidney Moncrief or that Nolan Richardson didn’t know how to coach big men despite Corliss Williamson, Lee Wilson, Darnell Robinson and Dwight Stewart flourishing on a national title team.
Losing when you are No. 1 is a tough pill to swallow, but it must be done. And, it’s better to look at an entire season than one or two games. I’ll remember this as one of my favorite times to cover a team.
I do not believe that this is Van Horn’s last great team. He has consistently pointed to the future as exciting stuff. Recruiting continues to build.
"They are recruiting at a level like I've never seen here before," remarked a long-time observer recently.
There will be more impressive new players like Van Horn found this year. Freshman Cayden Wallace (14) and JUCO sluggers Slavens (14) and Welch (8) combined to hit 36 homers.
Robert Moore homered 16 times in his first full season, including three times in the postseason.
But for now, some will be disappointed. Coaches catch grief and can handle it. They don’t like a season-ending loss anymore than fans.
I know this from talking to great baseball minds around college baseball, including some of my friends. Arkansas has a great baseball staff. You don’t win 50 games without solid coaching.
The fun part of baseball is that it’s easy to second guess coaching moves. It’s the strategy of the game that leaves plenty of options for fans to pick other ways to play situations or utilize players.
That’s never going to change. To bunt or not to bunt will always be second guessed. To swing away or take is a point of discussion. To stick with a pitcher or go with the quick hook will never go away in a post-game discussion.
It’s easy stuff to debate. A win or a loss makes each decision right or wrong. It’s part of the game.
Armchair coaches will find fault. But what I know is that this Arkansas baseball staff should trust its judgment. From my chair, it looks pretty darn good.
No one wanted this season to end. Those sitting along the left-field line probably left Baum-Walker Stadium in tears, especially if they stayed to watch every teammate line up to hug Kopps. He was sobbing as the emotion poured forth in the realization that he would throw no more for them.
This bunch was close. They played for each other. They fought, they scrapped and they won. Remember them that way.
I know that the national championship is the goal, but there is nothing wrong with celebrating a team that won both the SEC outright title in the regular season and the SEC Tournament.
It’s rare air that this Arkansas baseball team gave Razorback Nation.
Take a deep breath of it. It’s pretty good stuff.