Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Omaha.

Is there another singular use of a city name that is so closely tied to a sporting event? Too much goes on in New York City, Los Angeles or even Dallas to tie those to any one thing. But the mere mention of “Omaha” instantly equates to the pinnacle of college baseball. Omaha is painted on locker room walls and coaches and players constantly reference Omaha as the team’s goal. For the next ten days or so, the city of Omaha and college baseball grab some headlines from the NBA playoffs (admit it, if the Thunder weren’t in it, you wouldn’t be watching) and golf’s U.S. Open.

Arkansas (44-20) is no stranger to Omaha and the College World Series. Senior infielders Bo Bigham and Tim Carver were here in 2009, but this will be the program's first experience in TD Ameritrade Park. Arkansas’ previous six appearances were at the old Rosenblatt Stadium across town. TD Ameritrade opened last year and is a state-of-the-art, 24,000-seat stadium that sits just on the edge of downtown Omaha. The new ballpark is known as a pitcher’s park with spacious playing dimensions. Teams that can pitch and play defense should be able to hang in there, given the long ball shouldn’t be a huge factor because of a wind that blows in and the underwhelming composite bats teams use.

Frequent Visitor

Coach Dave Van Horn is no stranger to Omaha. Van Horn twice took Nebraska to the College World Series and this is his third trip with the Razorbacks. Trips included a seventh-place finish in 2004 and third place in 2009. Given their performance down the stretch, before NCAA play began, the 2012 version of the baseball Razorbacks may be on the most improbable run of any of the aforementioned squads. Limited offensively but loaded with quality arms on the mound and a stingy defense, Arkansas has slipped into Omaha with perhaps the least amount of fanfare.

Backup Cinderella

Arkansas' first-round opponent, the Kent State Golden Flashes (46-18), cannot say the same thing. Although the Stony Brook Seawolves win the award for biggest Cinderella story, Kent State is also getting a ton of media attention for making its first trip to the CWS. Kent State (like Stony Brook) is proof quality college baseball can be played north of the Mason-Dixon line. Two teams from the north making it to Omaha is a paradigm shift in a sport typically dominated by teams from California, Florida, Arizona and the Sun Belt.

The Golden Flashes, much like Arkansas, have found a way to win close ballgames in someone else’s ballpark during their run through the regionals. Kent State only played 20 home games all season, so being on the road is no big deal to these kids. They escaped the Purdue Regional with a pair of one-run victories. They advanced to Omaha with a pair of one-run victories against No. 5 national seed Oregon in the Eugene Super Regional. KSU has one loss in its last 23 games and appears to be playing its best baseball of the season. Kent State played a weak schedule which ranked 191^st in college baseball but has put it all together when it matters.

David Starn (11-3, 2.21 ERA), a former walk on who was taken in the seventh round of the Major League draft, will open on the mound for Kent State. Starn is classified as a “winner” by his coach Scott Stricklin and while not being a hard thrower, he has the command of four pitches. Starn has struck out 123 batters in 114 innings and opponents only hit .213 against him. Starn did surrender four earned runs and eight hits during his 6 2/3-inning stint against Kentucky’s high-powered offense. He also gave up four earned runs, five hits and seven walks to Oregon in the Flashes’ 7-6 victory to open the Eugene Super Regional.

Arkansas tends to be weaker against left-handed pitching with Dominic Ficociello (.301, six home runs, 40 RBI) and Matt Vinson (.208) switching over to their weaker sides, but it does allow hot-hitting freshman Joe Serrano (.321) to get in the lineup as the designated hitter.

Kent State features a scrappy, balanced offense that is typical of most teams in today’s game. Stricklin’s team is athletic and can produce runs in a variety of ways. The Flashes are hitting .255 in postseason play after hitting .302 as a team for the season, but with the amount of one-run games they have won, they are coming through in the clutch. Shortstop Jimmy Rider (.364, 29 doubles, 56 RBI), who had the game-winning blooper against Oregon, anchors the offense and is supported by George Roberts (.368, eight home runs, 64 RBI) and Evan Campbell (.347, seven home runs, 40 RBI) . Kent State isn’t as powerful as Baylor offensively but these guys are much better than Rice and Sam Houston State.

Extended Stay Omaha

Razorback ace DJ Baxendale (7-5, 3.18 ERA) is looking to bounce back from a lackluster outing against Baylor where he gave up five earned runs and six hits in four-plus innings. Baxendale wasn’t able to effectively locate any of his pitches and ended up being knocked around. The 10^th-round pick of the Minnesota Twins will need to pitch with more confidence and command if he wants to stick around long on Saturday.