Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

EVEN-KEEL HOGS say there’s more left to do.

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FAYETTEVIL­LE — The Arkansas Razorbacks were exuberant about closing out Sunday’s 4-3 victory over Dallas Baptist and moving on to the NCAA super regional round, but they kept their celebratio­n in check.

No dog piles for the Hogs. “I’ll say we’re excited, obviously, but there’s a lot more we want to accomplish, and we’re locked in on that right now,” said reliever Jake Reindl, who picked up the victory with seven innings of long relief.

“We’re excited, but it’s a process and this is just one step along the journey we have ahead of us,” added freshman outfielder Heston Kjerstad.

The low-key celebratio­n was in line with Coach Dave Van Horn’s expectatio­ns.

“That’s what you’re supposed to do,” Van Horn said. “To me, you don’t dog pile at a regional. To me, the only time you dog pile is if you get to go to Omaha, and I don’t even like it then.

“I don’t want anybody to get hurt. You win a conference championsh­ip, maybe you can get excited. But they are pretty businessli­ke, and they know we’ve still got some work to do to get to the goal that we’re trying to achieve and go from there. I appreciate the way they acted. They acted like they’ve been there before.”

Closer Matt Cronin, asked about the Razorbacks’ mood after the regional victory, brought up words of advice from pitching coach Wes Johnson.

“Coach Johnson always says, ‘After midnight, forget this one and move on to the next one,’ ” Cronin said.

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