FAYETTEVILLE — Ben Tschepikow stood alone in the parking lot at Baum Stadium after the 2008 baseball season and thought about his next move in what had been an injury-plagued career at the University of Arkansas.
Tschepikow had been slowed by chronic back problems and played in only 14 games with the Razorbacks in 2008. So, the question facing Tschepikow was whether to just move on from baseball or to try and come back with a medical redshirt as a fifth-year senior.
“I was about to graduate and I still had another year of (college) eligibility left,” said Tschepikow, who was a three-sport athlete at Fayetteville High School. “I remember thinking in the parking lot ‘Is this really it? Is this what I want my legacy to be?’ I had family and friends who’d been following me and I remember thinking ‘is this really how I want to go out?’ I decided the answer was no and I came back in 2009 and had the best year of my career.”
Tschepikow was a catalyst for an Arkansas team that finished tied for third place in the NCAA Tournament after placing fourth in the SEC with a 14-15 record. The Razorbacks finished 41-24 and won two games in the College World Series before being eliminated by LSU, which won the national championship in 2009.
“I thought we were the second-best team that year,” Tschepikow said. “But nobody was going to beat LSU. They were that good.”
Playing in the College World Series seemed far-fetched down the stretch for Arkansas, which lost eight consecutive games in SEC play that season. But Arkansas began to gain momentum when the Razorbacks went 2-2 in the SEC Tournament at Hoover, Ala. Tschepikow, who hadn’t played shortstop since high school, took over for the injured Scott Lyons at shortstop and made the SEC All-Tournament team.
Even Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said he was surprised by Tschepikow’s performance.
“Yeah, I am not going to lie to you,” Van Horn said at the time. “He played great, didn’t he? It was unbelievable. He played outstanding shortstop. He made a play in the hole, made a couple up the middle. That’s why he made All-Tournament at short though he only played two games.”
Tschepikow’s breakout performance in the SEC Tournament almost didn’t happen. He overslept and missed the team bus from Fayetteville, which left him scrambling to get to Hoover and dreading to face Van Horn. Tschepikow expected the worse when he arrived in Hoover at 4 a.m. the next day and met Van Horn at 5:30 a.m. for breakfast with the team at the hotel.
“All he said was ‘I’m putting you at shortstop,’” Tschepikow said. “That was one of the last things I thought he was going to say, but it was a pivotal moment for me with coach Van Horn as a player. I remember thinking after that ‘I’m about to put on a freakin’ show because of this.”
Arkansas put on a show during the NCAA Tournament, starting in Norman, Okla., where the Razorbacks went 3-0 with one win over Washington State and two over the host Sooners. Arkansas was then paired in a best-of-three Super Regional in Tallahassee, Fla., with Florida State and its legendary coach Mark Martin, who won over 2,000 games during his long career. But Arkansas won consecutive games over the Seminoles to qualify for the College World Series for the sixth time in school history and the first time since 2004.
Arkansas had a good mixture of players that year with veterans like Tschepikow and Chase Leavitt and future Razorback stars like Zack Cox, James McCann, Collin Kuhn, and Drew Smyly, who were all freshmen in 2009.
“Any time you come to Arkansas and play for coach Van Horn, you’ve always got a chance to win a national title,” said Chase Leavitt, who was an outfielder and co-captain with Tschepikow on the 2009 team. “Ben was huge that year, a true leader on and off the field and a friend that everyone looked up to.”
Arkansas won its sixth consecutive game when the Razorbacks outscored Cal State Fullerton 10-6 in the College World Series opener at Omaha, Neb. LSU stopped the Hogs 9-1 before Brett Eibner kept Arkansas alive with a dramatic ninth-inning home run in a 4-3 win in 12 innings over Virginia. Arkansas then faced LSU again and the Tigers put an end to the Razorbacks’ late-season surge with a 14-5 win.
One of the first Razorbacks to congratulate LSU Coach Paul Mainieri during the postgame handshakes was Tschepikow, who missed the final game with a broken finger after being hit by a pitch in the game against Virginia. Tschepikow was about to proceed along the line of players and coaches when Mainieri stopped and told him how much he appreciated his tenacity, his grit as a ballplayer.
“That meant a lot to me,” said Tschepikow, who set career-bests by hitting .317 with 76 hits, four triples, and nine home runs in 2009.
Tschepikow played less than two years in professional baseball after being selected in the 17th round by the Kansas City Royals. After living 10 years in North Little Rock, Tschepikow, 35, is back in Fayetteville and working as an insurance broker. He still follows the Razorbacks but his primary focus now is on his wife, Natalie, and two boys, Hudson, 5, and Colt, 3.