OMAHA, Neb. — Thirty years ago Arkansas ended the season for a Jim Morris-coached baseball team.
The Razorbacks will try to do the same thing today when they play Miami in an elimination game in the College World Series.
Morris, in his 22nd season as Miami's coach, led Georgia Tech to the 1985 NCAA Tournament when Arkansas beat the Yellow Jackets 7-5 to win the NCAA South II Regional at Tallahassee, Fla.
"I don't really remember anything about that game," Morris said Saturday night after Florida beat Miami 15-3. "I just know Arkansas has had a good program for a long time."
Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said Sunday he remembers the 1985 South Ii Regional well. He was a graduate assistant on Coach Norm DeBriyn's staff at the time, having returned to the UA in January after ending a professional baseball playing career with the Atlanta Braves organization.
Host Florida State was favored to win the regional, but was eliminated by losing to Arkansas and Georgia Tech.
"I remember being at the press conference with Coach DeBriyn (before the regional) and nobody said one thing about Arkansas," Van Horn said. "But we knew we had a good team, and if we played well we'd have a shot.
"It was a loaded regional, and back then there were six teams. There were no super regionals."
The Arkansas-Georgia Tech regional title game drew only 744 fans because FSU wasn't playing.
"I remember there was an odd atmosphere to the game, because there was so much on the line and yet there were so few people there and they didn't make much noise," DeBriyn said several years later. "It just felt really strange."
Kevin Brown, who pitched 19 years in the major leagues and was a six-time All-Star with a 211-144 record and 3.28 earned run average, was a Georgia Tech sophomore in 1985 and pitched against the Razorbacks with a College World Series berth on the line.
Brown threw a complete game, but he gave up 11 hits including home runs by Jeff King — the No. 1 pick in the 1986 draft who played for Pittsbrugh and Kansas City — and Steve Clements.
Fred Farwell pitched 8 2/3 innings for the Razorbacks and Tim Dietz got the the final out.
Brown wound up being the No. 7 overall pick: the same spot where Arkansas center fielder Andrew Benintendi was picked by Boston this year.
"Brown was a great pitcher," DeBriyn said. "He really threw hard and had good location, but we had a good lineup, and we were able to get some runs off him."
Van Horn said it was fun to think back on beating a pitcher like Brown.
"It's always interesting, the names that come out of those things," Van Horn said. "Some of them may be big leaguers or even All-Stars.
"At the time, they're just a guy that goes to Georgia Tech or Florida State and you've got to find a way to beat them, and that's what we did back then."