Van Horn lauds fan support as Razorbacks come home
FAYETTEVILLE - An estimated 250 or more fans, including a former Arkansas third baseman, turned out to call the Hogs and cheer coach Dave Van Horn and the Arkansas Razorbacks Friday, as they returned to Fayetteville after finishing as the national runner-up at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Oregon State won the national championship by winning two straight elimination games over the Razorbacks, rallying for a 5-3 win in Game 2 after scoring three runs in the ninth to overcome a 3-2 deficit before winning the deciding Game 3 5-0.
Arkansas won Game 1 4-1 on Tuesday.
“The support this season has been incredible,” Van Horn told the homecoming Friday crowd at the Baum Stadium parking lot. “Second to none. There is not a better fan base in the country. No doubt about it. For those of you that were fortunate enough to go to Omaha, we put on a show up there. I’m talking the fans put on a show.”
Van Horn stressed there is no laurels resting among himself, hitting coach Nate Thompson and pitching coach Wes Johnson in their efforts to spend June in Omaha again.
“I’ll tell you this” Van Horn said. “I’ve got two coaches out already on the road and we’re going to get some more players and we’ll be back.”
Van Horn was asked about the 250 gathered on short notice Friday at
Baum.
“So typical of what we’ve been getting for the last few months to be honest with you,” Van Horn said. “And it’s just exciting to see people who feel so strongly about our program.
“We’ve been dealing with crowds and ovations for two weeks straight up in Omaha. Our fans have been incredible up there. People were amazed. I think they were amazed across the country by what they saw up there.
“I think our players really appreciate it. I think they get it that it’s not normal. We had more fans than anybody up there by far.”
None seemed more proud than former third baseman, Ken Hatfield, best known as Arkansas’ two-time Southwest Conference champion head football coach from 1984-89 and Razorbacks defensive back and nationally leading punt returner for Frank Broyles’ 1964 national championship football team, but also a third baseman when the late Bill Ferrell, the Razorbacks’ head trainer, also coached their then independent baseball team.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the team and the year and the way they represented us,” Hatfield said. “I don’t know if we ever had this much media coverage nationwide about the Razorbacks and Arkansas for that long period of time. I mean you’ve got two weeks now that the whole world has been focused on the baseball tournament and man we’ve got tremendous coverage. The team all year has represented themselves so well. They never lost their composure and never lost their vision of where they wanted to be. All the way through to where we are today.”
Hatfield marveled at Razorbacks baseball going from the afterthoughts the program was at the old Fairgrounds Park during Hatfield’s athletic era to Norm DeBriyn taking the Razorbacks to George Cole Field and Baum Stadium and five College World Series years to Van Horn’s now five CWS appearances with this national runner-up matching DeBriyn’s national runner-up in 1979.
“When I played, we had about five people watching at the old Fairgrounds,” Hatfield said. “I just couldn’t be prouder of Dave and this team. They’ve done as good as any Arkansas baseball team in the history of the school and represented us well on this stage. … Hey we’ve been to the old stadium with Norm (Rosenblatt Stadium was the College World Series home until TD Ameritrade Park was built in 2011) and been to the new stadium with Dave and the team. These guys are just tremendous.”
Van Horn, Arkansas’ second baseman for DeBriyn in 1982 and Arkansas’ coach since 2003, said it was a team that without problems blended star freshmen like AllSEC second-teamers Casey Martin and Heston Kjerstad with seniors Carson Shaddy, the firstteam All-SEC second baseman, designated hitter Luke Bonfield and first baseman Jared Gates and junior All-American right-handed pitcher Blaine Knight of Bryant.
“This team means a lot to me personally,” Van Horn said. “Just a great bunch of guys. Really good leadership from the older players and young guys who were talented and bought in and the older guys accepted them and led them pretty well throughout the season. They always showed up to play. I didn’t have to really feel I had to motivate them. Just a fun group to be around.”