Van Horn, Kent State coach back on diamond

FAYETTEVILLE — It seems Dave Van Horn just can’t get away from Team USA.

Throughout the season, the Arkansas Razorbacks’ head baseball coach has chanced upon players he helped coach last summer as an assistant for the national Team USA All- Star teams of collegians.

Included are two of his own, third baseman Matt Reynolds and pitcher Ryne Stanek, several from 2012 opponents and the head coach he served, Tim Jamieson of Big 12 tournament champion Missouri, playing in May its final two nonconference games against Arkansas until the Tigers join the Hogs in Southeastern Conference baseball in 2013.

In his team’s Saturday opener of the College World Series against Kent State in Omaha, Neb., Van Horn gets a Team USA double dose. Kent State catcher David Lyon caught for Team USA, and Kent State coach Scott Stricklin assisted Jamieson with Van Horn.

Van Horn and Stricklin pick up where Team USA left off last summer.

“The last time I saw him, ironically, was in Omaha,” Van Horn said. “We finished up in Omaha on the field that we are going to meet on. We coached together and I felt we became pretty good friends. I admire his approach to the game. He is very intense and serious.”

And Stricklin had a serious feeling even that 2011 summer about his 2012 Golden Flashes making Kent State’s first CWS trip and the first for a MidAmerican Conference representative since Eastern Michigan in 1976.

“He told me last summer they were going to have a good club in 2012,” Van Horn said. “He has had a lot of good players go through Kent State. He has had the best program in the State of Ohio over the last four or five years. He is one of the top young coaches in the country.”

The MAC and Kent State don’t have the Arkansas/ Southeastern Conference big name but the Golden Flashes ( 46- 18) obviously have game.

Starting with a 21- innings victory over the Kentucky Wildcats that beat Arkansas two of three in Fayetteville, the Golden Flashes won the Gary ( Ind.) Regional, beating Kentucky again, and then traveled west to the super regional to beat the Pac12 hosting Oregon Ducks two of three to advance to Omaha.

Lyon set the tone, catching every one of the 21 innings and immediately asking for more.