When the University of Arkansas baseball team plays an elimination game against Murray State on Monday at the College World Series, two players from Batesville -- population 11,515 -- will take the field.

OMAHA, NE. — Murray State baseball will play Arkansas today at Charles Schwab Field for the opportunity to continue in the 2025 Men's College World Series. The Racers fell 6-4 to the UCLA Bruins in their debut Saturday afternoon. The Razorbacks fell 4-1 to the LSU Tigers later that night.

History Lesson Entering Monday’s matchup in Omaha, Arkansas is 8-0 all-time against Murray State. Under Dave Van Horn, the Razorbacks are 6-0 overall against the Racers.

While he’s not hanging up his hat, Dave Van Horn knows he’s in the late innings of his career. Tom Shatel writes, along with Cam Kozeal, that there's every reason

In a cruel stroke of irony, it was LSU that battled the Arkansas pitchers into submission, not the other way around. The Tigers had 11 two-strike foul balls to extend at-bats and run Arkansas' pitch count up.

Under Dave Van Horn, Arkansas baseball has faced postseason heartbreak. That could continue after a College World Series loss.

The Kozeal homecoming symbolizes a link to Omaha’s CWS history. Matt Kozeal assisted with game operations at Rosenblatt, starting in 2005, and he worked on the grounds crew in 2009 and 2010 to ready the field for CWS participants and the primary Rosenblatt tenants, the Triple-A Omaha Royals.

Both coaches' wiillingness and ability to utilize the transfer portal.The reliance on the portal is especially pronounced on the Arkansas side of the ledger. Eight of the nine players in the projected starting lineup had previous college experience before playing for the Razorbacks.