Arkansas baseball believed the postseason to be a new season. It showed why in Stillwater

STILLWATER, Okla. — Arkansas baseball coach Dave Van Horn said before the Stillwater Regional began that the postseason was a new season.

The Razorbacks had just gone 0-2 in the SEC Tournament, lost their final two SEC series and dropped six of their last eight games. A new season was going to be necessary if the No. 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament was to take down No. 7 national seed Oklahoma State, at least from a mindset standpoint.

Four days later, Van Horn is headed to his 13th super regional. Arkansas defeated Oklahoma State 7-3 in the regional final Monday to advance to its fourth consecutive super regional, where it will play in Chapel Hill against North Carolina (42-20). It's the longest active streak in the country.

"If you get to a super," Van Horn said, "You've got a chance."

The Razorbacks (41-19) had been criticized mid-season for the offense lacking the pop it had in 2021 and for struggles with clutch hitting. There were few such struggles in Stillwater.

The Razorbacks won the highest-scoring regional in NCAA history. Arkansas played a game in which every player had a hit and five had multiple. Players like Robert Moore and Peyton Stovall, who had slumped or slowed offensively, got back in the game.

Stovall was particularly clutch on Monday, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, including one with two outs and two strikes in the fourth. He hadn't batted in a run since May 19 against Alabama.

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"I've seen him finally relax," Van Horn said. "The kid had a lot of pressure on him to start the year. Too much hype. Nobody can play in this league that well, a lot of times, when you have that on you. I think he's really swinging the bat a lot better"

Arkansas' defense was the key in the final win. Even with limited pitching after a high-scoring series of games, the Razorbacks managed to work through jams with the help of big fielding plays.

The pitching staff has been solid on the whole, but struggled with free passes this season. The Razorbacks sit in the bottom half of Division I in walks per nine innings. In Monday's game, Arkansas pitchers walked just four batters and hit one.

"Our pitching was outstanding," Van Horn said. "It started with Zack Morris. Kole Ramage came in and gave us everything he had, and it was his third time to throw this weekend.

"Zebulon (Vermillion) came in and got us a couple outs, and then Hagen (Smith) came in, and he just flat out was not going to be denied."

Smith was the hero, throwing two scoreless frames to close out the game and striking out four. He worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, striking out Oklahoma State star Roc Riggio.

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But to Van Horn, the "new season" idea goes beyond the on-field product. It's even extended to the clubhouse.

"I feel like in the last two weeks, the team's gotten closer than it's been all year," he said. "You can feel it, you can see it, and they don't want to lose. They want to keep playing."

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks. You can email her at clong@swtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @christinalong00.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Arkansas baseball proved postseason is a new season with regional win